English

Decoherence due to the Horizon after Inflation

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology 2008-11-26 v1 Astrophysics

Abstract

The fluctuations in the inflaton field at the end of inflation which seed the density perturbations are prepared in a pure quantum state. It is generally assumed that some physics causes this pure state to decohere so that it should be treated probabilistically. We show that the entanglement entropy between the universe inside our observable horizon and that outside our horizon is sufficient to do this. For the modes which are super-Hubble at the end of inflation, this entanglement entropy grows with volume inside the horizon, rather than with the horizon's area, and is proportional to the number of e-folds since Hubble crossing.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0708.3353,
  title  = {Decoherence due to the Horizon after Inflation},
  author = {Jonathan W. Sharman and Guy D. Moore},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0708.3353},
  year   = {2008}
}

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11 pages