Fluctuation-dissipation and equilibrium for scalar fields in de Sitter

Abstract

The infrared dynamics of a minimally coupled scalar field in de Sitter spacetime can be described as Brownian motion of a particle in a medium of de Sitter temperature $T_{DS}=\frac{H}{2\pi }$. The system obeys a fluctuation-dissipation relation and its equilibrium distribution is Maxwell-Boltzmann, implying kinetic and potential energies of comparable magnitudes. The transition to equilibrium is a semi-classical process beyond the scope of perturbation theory for interacting fields. The stochastic kinetic energy of the field causes de Sitter spacetime to cool down slowly with a corresponding decrease of the effective vacuum energy.

7 pages, no figures

Cited by in corpus (7)

• Infrared Correlations in de Sitter Space: Field Theoretic vs. Stochastic Approach
• Feynman Diagrams for Stochastic Inflation and Quantum Field Theory in de Sitter Space
• Fluctuation and dissipation in de Sitter space
• Is the Big Rip unreachable?
• Quantitative classicality in cosmological interactions during inflation
• Thermal property in Brownian motion of a particle coupled to vacuum fluctuations
• Emergent particles of de Sitter: thermal interpretation of the stochastic formalism and beyond