A Cosmological Slavnov-Taylor Identity

Abstract

We develop a method for treating the consistency relations of inflation that includes the full time-evolution of the state. This approach relies only on the symmetries of the inflationary setting, in particular a residual conformal symmetry in the spatial part of the metric, along with general properties which hold for any quantum field theory. As a result, the consistency relations that emerge, which are essentially the Slavnov-Taylor identities associated with this residual conformal symmetry, apply very generally: they are true of the full Green's functions, hold largely independently of the particular inflationary model, and can be used for arbitrary states. We illustrate these techniques by showing the form assumed by the standard consistency relation between the two and three-point functions for the primordial scalar fluctuations when they are in a Bunch-Davies state. But because we have included the full evolution of the state, this approach works for a general initial state as well and does not need to have assumed that inflation began in the Bunch-Davies state.

arXiv comment38 pages (published version, new material on initial states added)

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Cited by in corpus (13)

• Inflationary soft theorems revisited: A generalized consistency relation
• On the scalar consistency relation away from slow roll
• Systematics of Adiabatic Modes: Flat Universes
• Soft limits in holographic cosmology
• On the Initial State and Consistency Relations
• Path integral for multi-field inflation
• Consistency relations in multi-field inflation
• The Cosmological Slavnov-Taylor Identity from BRST Symmetry in Single-Field Inflation
• General Covariance Constraints on Cosmological Correlators
• Inflation in Flatland
• Issues about Cosmological Ward Identities
• The double-soft limit in cosmological correlation functions and graviton exchange effects
• Inflationary cross-correlations of a non-minimal spectator and their soft limits