On the Entropy and the Density Matrix of Cosmological Perturbations

Abstract

We look at the transition to the semiclassical behaviour and the decoherence process for the inhomogeneous perturbations in the inflationary universe. Two different decoherence mechanisms appear: one dynamical, accompanied with a negligible, if at all, entropy gain, and the other, effectively irreversible dephasing, due to a rapid variation in time of the off-diagonal density matrix elements in the post-inflationary epoch. We thus settle the discrepancies in the entropy content of perturbations evaluated by different authors.

LaTeX2e with the epsf package

References in corpus (9)

• Semiclassicality and Decoherence of Cosmological Perturbations
• Inflation and squeezed quantum states
• Nonequilibrium Dynamics of Symmetry Breaking in Lambda Phi^4 Field Theory
• The Entropy of the Gravitational Field
• Squeezed Vacua and the Quantum Statistics of Cosmological Particle Creation
• Entropy Production in the Cosmological Amplification of the Vacuum Fluctuations
• Large Squeezing Behavior of Cosmological Entropy Generation
• On the Phase-Space Volume of Primordial Cosmological Perturbations
• The Origin of the Entropy in the Universe

Cited by in corpus (11)

• Quantum Discord of Cosmic Inflation: Can we Show that CMB Anisotropies are of Quantum-Mechanical Origin?
• Cosmological Inflation and the Quantum Measurement Problem
• The Coherence of Primordial Fluctuations Produced During Inflation
• Theoretical tools for CMB physics
• Cosmic decoherence: primordial power spectra and non-Gaussianities
• The Quantum State of Inflationary Perturbations
• No intrinsic decoherence of inflationary cosmological perturbations
• Constraining quantum collapse inflationary models with current data: The semiclassical approach
• In search of an observational quantum signature of the primordial perturbations in slow-roll and ultra slow-roll inflation
• The Quantum Origin of Quasi de Sitter: a Model Independent Quantum Cosmological Tilt
• Observational constraints on inflationary potentials within the quantum collapse framework