A New Theory of Stochastic Inflation

Abstract

The stochastic inflation program is a framework for understanding the dynamics of a quantum scalar field driving an inflationary phase. Though widely used and accepted, there have over recent years been serious criticisms of this theory. In this paper I will present a new theory of stochastic inflation which avoids the problems of the conventional approach. Specifically, the theory can address the quantum-to-classical transition problem, and it will be shown to lead to a dramatic easing of the fine tuning constraints that have plagued inflation theories.

28 pages in latex (uses revtex), no figures. Changes include 3 pages of extra detail in the derivation of the noise and dissipation kernels, and a more careful description of the approximations made. Results remain unchanged

References in corpus (2)

• Quantum Fluctuations, Decoherence of the Mean Field, and Structure Formation in the Early Universe
• Coarse graining and decoherence in quantum field theory

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