Do Mixed States save Effective Field Theory from BICEP?
High Energy Physics - Theory
2014-03-24 v2 Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
Abstract
The BICEP2 collaboration has for the first time observed the B-mode polarization associated with inflationary gravitational waves. Their result has some discomfiting implications for the validity of an effective theory approach to single-field inflation since it would require an inflaton field excursion larger than the Planck scale. We argue that if the quantum state of the gravitons is a mixed state based on the Bunch-Davies vacuum, then the tensor to scalar ratio r measured by BICEP is different than the quantity that enters the Lyth bound. When this is taken into account, the tension between effective field theory and the BICEP result is alleviated.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1403.4592,
title = {Do Mixed States save Effective Field Theory from BICEP?},
author = {Hael Collins and R. Holman and Tereza Vardanyan},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1403.4592},
year = {2014}
}
Comments
3 pages, uses RevTeX; v2 Added References, and new paragraph about backreaction