Non-Markovian open quantum system approach to the early universe: I. Damping of gravitational waves by matter

Abstract

By revising the application of the open quantum system approach to the early universe and extending it to the conditions beyond the Markovian approximation, we obtain a new non-Markovian quantum Boltzmann equation. Throughout the paper, we also develop an extension of the quantum Boltzmann equation to describe the processes that are irreversible at the macroscopic level. This new kinetic equation is, in principle, applicable to a wide variety of processes in the early universe. For instance, using this equation one can accurately study the microscopic influence of a cosmic environment on a system of cosmic background photons or stochastic gravitational waves. In this paper, we apply the non-Markovian quantum Boltzmann equation to study the damping of gravitational waves propagating in a medium consisting of decoupled ultra-relativistic neutrinos. For such a system, we study the time evolution of the intensity and the polarization of the gravitational waves. It is shown that, in contrast to intensity and linear polarization which are damped, the circular polarization (V-mode) of the gravitational wave (if present) is amplified by propagating through such a medium.

arXiv commentFinal published version. 40 pages, 2 figures

References in corpus (48)

• Shear viscosity of strongly coupled N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills plasma
• Exploring the Sensitivity of Next Generation Gravitational Wave Detectors
• Science Case for the Einstein Telescope
• Gravitational Wave Experiments and Early Universe Cosmology
• Cosmological Backgrounds of Gravitational Waves
• Transport coefficients in high temperature gauge theories: (I) Leading-log results
• The Quark-Gluon Plasma: Collective Dynamics and Hard Thermal Loops
• Introduction to Nonequilibrium Quantum Field Theory
• Science with the space-based interferometer LISA. IV: Probing inflation with gravitational waves
• Prospects for Fundamental Physics with LISA
• From Quantum Field Theory to Hydrodynamics: Transport Coefficients and Effective Kinetic Theory
• Improved Calculation of the Primordial Gravitational Wave Spectrum in the Standard Model
• Damping of Tensor Modes in Cosmology
• The astrophysical gravitational wave stochastic background
• Markovian master equations for quantum thermal machines: local vs global approach
• Non-Markovian quantum dynamics: local versus non-local
• Markovian Master Equations: A Critical Study
• Cosmic Microwave Background Polarization
• Foundations and Measures of Quantum Non-Markovianity
• Cosmic Microwave Background Fluctuations from Gravitational Waves: An Analytic Approach
• Local vs global master equation with common and separate baths: superiority of the global approach in partial secular approximation
• Schwinger-Keldysh Diagrammatics for Primordial Perturbations
• Open EFTs, IR Effects and Late-Time Resummations: Systematic Corrections in Stochastic Inflation
• An effective field theory during inflation: reduced density matrix and its quantum master equation
• Quantum Decoherence During Inflation from Gravitational Nonlinearities
• Comment on "Damping of Tensor Modes in Cosmology"
• Decoherence, discord and the quantum master equation for cosmological perturbations
• Lecture Notes on the Theory of Open Quantum Systems
• An effective field theory during inflation II: stochastic dynamics and power spectrum suppression
• Probing non-Gaussian Stochastic Gravitational Wave Backgrounds with LISA
• Observational constraints on quantum decoherence during inflation
• Generation of circular polarization of the CMB
• The Imprint of Relativistic Particles on the Anisotropies of the Stochastic Gravitational-Wave Background
• The impact of cosmic neutrinos on the gravitational-wave background
• Gravitational Waves in Cold Dark Matter
• Relaxation and Kinetics in Scalar Field Theories
• A cosmological open quantum system
• Hydrodynamic transport functions from quantum kinetic theory
• Damping of gravitational waves by matter
• An analytic description of the damping of gravitational waves by free streaming neutrinos
• Photon-graviton scattering: A new way to detect anisotropic gravitational waves?
• Absorption of Gravitational Waves from Distant Sources
• CMB circular and B-mode polarization from new interactions
• A probabilistic model for learning in cortical microcircuit motifs with data-based divisive inhibition
• Relativistic viscous effects on the primordial gravitational waves spectrum
• CMB $V$ modes from photon-photon forward scattering revisited
• Kinetic theory of fermions in curved spacetime
• Quantum Boltzmann equation for fermions: An attempt to calculate the NMR relaxation and decoherence times using quantum field theory techniques

Cited by in corpus (12)

• Quantum simulation of non-equilibrium dynamics and thermalization in the Schwinger model
• Probing neutrino interactions and dark radiation with gravitational waves
• The Early Universe as an Open Quantum System: Complexity and Decoherence
• Clarifying transfer function approximations for the large-scale gravitational wave background in $\Lambda$CDM
• An Open Effective Field Theory for light in a medium
• Relativistic viscous effects on the primordial gravitational waves spectrum
• Open Quantum System Approach to the Gravitational Decoherence of Spin-1/2 Particles
• Axion-Like Dark Matter Detection Using Stern-Gerlach Interferometer
• Open system dynamics in interacting quantum field theories
• Quantifying spectral signatures of non-Markovianity beyond the Born-Redfield master equation
• Exploring gravitational impulse via quantum Boltzmann equation
• Induced Circular Polarization on Photons Due to Interaction with Axion-Like Particles in Rotating Magnetic Field of Neutron Stars