The collapse of the wave function in the joint metric-matter quantization for inflation

Abstract

It has been argued that the standard inflationary scenario suffers from a serious deficiency as a model for the origin of the seeds of cosmic structure: it can not truly account for the transition from an early homogeneous and isotropic stage to another one lacking such symmetries. The issue has often been thought as a standard instance of the "quantum measurement problem", but as has been recently argued by some of us the situation reaches a critical level in the cosmological context of interest here. This has lead to a proposal in which the standard paradigm is supplemented by a hypothesis concerning the self-induced dynamical collapse of the wave function, as representing the physical mechanism through which such change of symmetry is brought forth. This proposal was formulated within the context of semiclassical gravity. Here we investigate an alternative realization of such idea implemented directly within the standard analysis in terms of a quantum field jointly describing the inflaton and metric perturbations, the so called Mukhanov-Sasaki variable. We show that even though the prescription is quite different, the theoretical predictions include some deviations from the standard ones, which are indeed very similar to those found in the early studies. We briefly discuss the differences between the two at both, the conceptual and practical levels.

31 pages, 6 figures. Replaced to match the published version

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• Emergence of inflationary perturbations in the CSL model
• Inflation without quantum gravity
• Origin of structure: Statistical characterization of the primordial density fluctuations and the collapse of the wave function
• Inflation including collapse of the wave function: The quasi-de Sitter case
• Primordial gravitational waves and the collapse of the wave function
• Constraining quantum collapse inflationary models with current data: The semiclassical approach
• Inhomogeneities from quantum collapse scheme without inflation
• Semiclassical Self Consistent Treatment of the Emergence of Seeds of Cosmic Structure. The second order construction
• Quasi-matter bounce and inflation in the light of the CSL model
• Inflationary gravitational waves in collapse scheme models
• Novel Possibility of Nonstandard Statistics in the Inflationary Spectrum of Primordial Inhomogeneities
• Enlightening the CSL model landscape in inflation
• A response to criticisms on "CMB Constraints Cast a Shadow on CSL Model"
• Emergent universe revisited through the CSL theory
• Emergent universe: tensor perturbations within the CSL framework
• Novel vacuum conditions in inflationary collapse models
• Spontaneous collapse models lead to the emergence of classicality of the Universe
• Interpretations of Quantum Theory in the Light of Modern Cosmology
• Observational constraints on inflationary potentials within the quantum collapse framework