Classical and quantum evolution of inflationary fluctuations
High Energy Physics - Theory
2026-04-21 v1 Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
Abstract
We compare the correlation functions of inflationary perturbations computed either with quantum or classical dynamics. Even if they are enforced to agree at a specific time during inflation, classical and quantum correlations will differ at the end of inflation, provided that interactions are relevant. The difference between the results of the classical and quantum computations is exponentially sensitive to the number of e-folds elapsed from the time of agreement. We illustrate this finding with the tree-level bispectrum of the primordial curvature fluctuation and the one-loop power spectrum of tensor modes. We also show that classical evolution from a finite time does not imply the appearance of poles in the scalar bispectrum.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2604.18416,
title = {Classical and quantum evolution of inflationary fluctuations},
author = {Guillermo Ballesteros and Jesús Gambín Egea and Alejandro Pérez Rodríguez},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2604.18416},
year = {2026}
}