Primordial quantum nonequilibrium and large-scale cosmic anomalies

Abstract

We study incomplete relaxation to quantum equilibrium at long wavelengths, during a pre-inflationary phase, as a possible explanation for the reported large-scale anomalies in the cosmic microwave background (CMB). Our scenario makes use of the de Broglie-Bohm pilot-wave formulation of quantum theory, in which the Born probability rule has a dynamical origin. The large-scale power deficit could arise from incomplete relaxation for the amplitudes of the primordial perturbations. We show, by numerical simulations for a spectator scalar field, that if the pre-inflationary era is radiation dominated then the deficit in the emerging power spectrum will have a characteristic shape (an inverse-tangent dependence on wavenumber k, with oscillations). It is found that our scenario is able to produce a power deficit in the observed region and of the observed (approximate) magnitude for an appropriate choice of cosmological parameters. We also discuss the large-scale anisotropy, which might arise from incomplete relaxation for the phases of the primordial perturbations. We present numerical simulations for phase relaxation, and we show how to define characteristic scales for amplitude and phase nonequilibrium. The extent to which the data might support our scenario is left as a question for future work. Our results suggest that we have a potentially viable model that might explain two apparently independent cosmic anomalies by means of a single mechanism.

40 pages, 16 figures, 5 tables. Minor improvements in v2

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Cited by in corpus (24)

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• Robust predictions for the large-scale cosmological power deficit from primordial quantum nonequilibrium
• The de Broglie-Bohm Quantum Theory and its Application to Quantum Cosmology
• Modeling the large-scale power deficit with smooth and discontinuous primordial spectra
• De Broglie-Bohm Quantum Mechanics
• Anisotropic non-Gaussianity from Rotational Symmetry Breaking Excited Initial States
• Beyond the Born rule in quantum gravity
• Anomalous spectral lines and relic quantum nonequilibrium
• Extreme quantum nonequilibrium, nodes, vorticity, drift, and relaxation retarding states
• Statistical anisotropy and cosmological quantum relaxation
• Perturbations and quantum relaxation
• Mechanism for nonlocal information flow from black holes
• Trans-Planckian fluctuations and the stability of quantum mechanics
• Evolution of Quantum Nonequilibrium for Coupled Harmonic Oscillators
• $\Psi$-Epistemic Quantum Cosmology?
• Quantum relaxation in a system of harmonic oscillators with time-dependent coupling
• Quantum gravity and quantum probability
• Cosmological perturbation theory with York time
• Gravitation and cosmology with York time
• The Unruh effect under the de Broglie-Bohm perspective
• Justifying Born's rule $P_{\alpha }=|{\Psi }_{\alpha }{|}^2$ using deterministic chaos, decoherence, and the de Broglie-Bohm quantum theory
• Signatures of relic quantum nonequilibrium
• Towards a test of the Born rule in high-energy collisions
• A principle of information conservation for physical laws (Hidden information in quantum systems?)