Related papers: Locality in effective field theory for inflationar…
We summarize our work on a consistency condition for inflation in two-field cosmological models, in the regime of rapid turn and third-order slow roll. To ensure a sustained inflationary period of this type, one needs to satisfy a certain…
We generalize the consistency condition for the three-point function in single field inflation to the case of dissipative, multi-field, single-clock models. We use the recently introduced extension of the effective field theory of inflation…
We elaborate on the principle that for gapped quantum spin systems with local interaction "local perturbations [in the Hamiltonian] perturb locally [the ground state]". This principle was established in [Bachmann et al. 2012], relying on…
The predictions of inflation are usually defined in terms of equal time in-in correlation functions in an accelerating cosmological background. These same observables exist for quantum field theory in other spacetimes, including flat space.…
The application of Effective Field Theory (EFT) methods to inflation has taken a central role in our current understanding of the very early universe. The EFT perspective has been particularly useful in analyzing the self-interactions…
The purpose of this paper is to explain clearly why nonlocality must be an essential part of the theory of relativity. In the standard local version of this theory, Lorentz invariance is extended to accelerated observers by assuming that…
The decoherence of quantum fluctuations into classical perturbations during inflation is discussed. A simple quantum mechanical argument, using a spatial particle wavefunction rather than a field description, shows that observable…
We study the generation of local non-Gaussianity in models of canonical single field inflation when their backgrounds are either attractor or non-attractor. We show that the invariance of inflation under space-time diffeomorphisms can be…
We consider the effects of inhomogeneous initial conditions in both the scalar field profile and the extrinsic curvature on different inflationary models. In particular, we compare the robustness of small field inflation to that of large…
Contextuality in quantum physics provides a key resource for quantum information and computation. The topological approach in [Abramsky and Brandenburger, New J. Phys., 2011, Abramsky et al., CSL 2015, 2015] characterizes contextuality as…
We discuss the issue of setting appropriate initial conditions for inflation. Specifically, we consider natural inflation model and discuss the fine tuning required for setting almost homogeneous initial conditions over a region of order…
We examine the role of using symmetry and effective field theory in inflationary model building. We describe the standard formulation of starting with an approximate shift symmetry for a scalar field, and then introducing corrections…
We revisit the squeezed-limit non-Gaussianity in the single-field non-attractor inflation models from the viewpoint of the cosmological soft theorem. In the single-field attractor models, inflaton's trajectories with different initial…
We study soft limits of correlation functions for the density and velocity fields in the theory of structure formation. First, we re-derive the (resummed) consistency conditions at unequal times using the eikonal approximation. These are…
We study the dynamics of two-field models of inflation characterized by a hierarchy of masses between curvature and isocurvature modes. When the hierarchy is large, a low energy effective field theory (EFT) exists in which only curvature…
The methods of effective field theory are used to study generic theories of inflation with a single inflaton field. For scalar modes, the leading corrections to the ${\cal R}$ correlation function are found to be purely of the $k$-inflation…
(abridged version) The separate universe conjecture states that in General Relativity a density perturbation behaves locally (i.e. on scales much smaller than the wavelength of the mode) as a separate universe with different background…
The physics of the inflationary universe requires the study of the out of equilibrium evolution of quantum fields in curved spacetime. We present the evolution for both the geometry and the matter (described by the quantum inflaton field)…
Inflationary models are generally credited with explaining the large scale homogeneity, isotropy, and flatness of our universe as well as accounting for the origin of structure (i.e., the deviations from exact homogeneity) in our universe.…
We show that General Relativity coupled to a quantum field theory generically leads to non-local effects in the matter sector. These non-local effects can be described by non-local higher dimensional operators which remarkably have an…