English

A quantum information method for early universe with non-trivial sound speed

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology 2026-02-27 v2 Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics High Energy Physics - Phenomenology High Energy Physics - Theory Quantum Physics

Abstract

Many quantum gravitational frameworks, such as DBI inflation, k-essence, and effective field theories obtained by integrating out heavy modes, can lead to a non-trivial sound speed. Meanwhile, our universe can be described as an open system. Under the non-trivial sound speed, we employ the method of open quantum systems combined with Arnoldi iterations to study the Krylov complexity throughout the early universe, including the inflationary, radiation-dominated, and matter-dominated epochs. A key ingredient in our analysis is the open two-mode squeezed state formalism and the generalized Lanczos algorithm. To numerically compute the Krylov complexity, we are the first time to derive the evolution equations for the parameters rkr_k and ϕk\phi_k within an open two-mode squeezed state. Our results indicate that the Krylov complexity exhibits a similar trend in both the standard case and the case with non-trivial sound speed. To distinguish between these two scenarios, we also investigate the Krylov entropy for completeness. The evolution of the Krylov entropy shows a clear difference between the standard case and the non-trivial sound speed case. Furthermore, based on the behavior of the Lanczos coefficients, we find that the case of non-trivial sound speed behaves as a maximally chaotic system. However, our numerical results suggest that the Krylov complexity does not saturate to a constant value due to the huge expansion of spacetime background. This study offers a new perspective for exploring the early universe through the quantum information.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2510.04011,
  title  = {A quantum information method for early universe with non-trivial sound speed},
  author = {Shi-Cheng Liu and Lei-Hua Liu and Bichu Li and Hai-Qing Zhang and Peng-Zhang He},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2510.04011},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

To be published in Fortschritte der Physik