Related papers: Light Scalars at the Cosmological Collider
We study the dynamics of scalar fields with compact field spaces, or axions, in de Sitter space. We argue that the field space topology can qualitatively affect the physics of these fields beyond just which terms are allowed in their…
Self-energies of a minimally coupled scalar field with quartic and trilinear interactions are calculated in a de Sitter background, using a position space propagator. For quartic interactions, we recover earlier results for the seagull…
We study the behaviour of a light quartically self-interacting scalar field $\phi$ on curved backgrounds that may be described with the cosmological equation state parameter $w$. At leading order in the non-perturbative 2PI expansion we…
Light scalar fields typically develop spatially varying backgrounds during inflation. Very often they do not directly affect the density perturbations, but interact with other fields that do leave nontrivial signals in primordial…
We study the dynamics of light quantum scalar fields in de Sitter space on superhorizon scales. We compute the self-energy of an O(N) symmetric theory at next-to-leading order in a 1/N expansion in the regime of superhorizon momenta, and we…
Massless interacting scalar fields in de Sitter space have long been known to experience large fluctuations over length scales larger than Hubble distances. A similar situation arises in condensed matter physics in the vicinity of a…
If an ultralight scalar interacts with the electromagnetic fields of a compact rotating star, then a long-range scalar field is developed outside the star. The Coulomb-like profile of the scalar field to the leading order is equivalent to…
We analyze infrared divergences arising in calculations involving light and massless fields in de Sitter space. We show that these arise from an incorrect treatment of the constant mode of the field, and show that a correct quantization…
We present the expressions of the three- and four-point correlation functions of a self interacting light scalar field in a de Sitter spacetime at tree order respectively for a cubic and a quartic potential. Exact expressions are derived…
We show that, as a result of non-linear self-interactions, it is feasible, at least in light of the bounds coming from terrestrial tests of gravity, measurements of the Casimir force and those constraints imposed by the physics of compact…
We present evidence that the simplest particle-physics scalar-field models of dynamical dark energy can be separated into distinct behaviors based on the acceleration or deceleration of the field as it evolves down its potential towards a…
We consider, in more details than it was done previously, the effective low-energy behavior in the quantum theory of a light scalar field coupled to another scalar with much larger mass. The main target of our work is an IR decoupling of…
The scale invariance of the quantum fluctuations in de Sitter space leads to the appearance of de Sitter symmetry breaking infra-red logarithms in the graviton propagator. We investigate physical effects of soft gravitons on the local…
We show non-perturbatively that the power spectrum of a self-interacting scalar field in de Sitter space-time is strongly suppressed on large scales. The cut-off scale depends on the strength of the self-coupling, the number of e-folds of…
We investigate the massless $\lambda \phi^4$ theory in de~Sitter space. It is unnatural to assume a minimally coupled interacting scalar field, since $\xi=0$ is not a fixed point of the renormalization group once interactions are included.…
The massless minimally coupled scalar field in de Sitter ambient space formalism might play a similar role to what the Higgs scalar field accomplishes within the electroweak standard model. With the introduction of a "local transformation"…
The observed accelerating universe indicates the presence of Dark Energy which is probably interpreted in terms of an extremely light gravitational scalar field. We suggest a way to probe this scalar field which contributes to optical…
The existence and detection of scalar fields could provide solutions to long-standing puzzles about the nature of dark matter, the dark compact objects at the centre of most galaxies, and other phenomena. Yet, self-interacting scalar fields…
We discuss peculiarities of quantum fields in de Sitter space on the example of the self-interacting massive real scalar, minimally coupled to the gravity background. Non-conformal quantum field theories in de Sitter space show very special…
Disformally coupled, light scalar fields arise in many of the theories of dark energy and modified gravity that attempt to explain the accelerated expansion of the universe. They have proved difficult to constrain with precision tests of…