On the proper treatment of massless fields in Euclidean de Sitter space

Abstract

We analyze infrared divergences arising in calculations involving light and massless fields in de Sitter space. We show that these arise from an incorrect treatment of the constant mode of the field, and show that a correct quantization leads to a well-defined and calculable perturbation expansion. We illustrate this by computing the first nontrivial loop correction in a theory of a massless scalar field with a quartic interaction.

12 pages

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• Spontaneous symmetry breaking in inflationary cosmology: on the fate of Goldstone Bosons
• Renormalisation of IR divergences and holography in de Sitter
• de Sitter Space is Unstable in Quantum Gravity
• Infrared Behavior of Quantum Fields in Inflationary Cosmology -- Issues and Approaches: an overview
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• QFT in the flat chart of de Sitter space
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