English

Origin of classical structure from inflation

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

Abstract

According to the inflationary scenario, all structure in the Universe can be traced back to quantum fluctuations of the metric and scalar field(s) during inflation. The seeds of this structure can be observed as classical anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background. I briefly review how the transition from the inherent quantum nature of these fluctuations to classical behaviour comes about. Two features play a crucial role: Firstly, the quantum state of the fluctuations becomes highly squeezed for wavelengths that exceed the Hubble radius. Secondly, decoherence due to other fields distinguishes the field-amplitude basis as the classical pointer basis. I also discuss the entropy of the fluctuations and make a brief comparison with chaotic systems.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0006252,
  title  = {Origin of classical structure from inflation},
  author = {Claus Kiefer},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0006252},
  year   = {2008}
}

Comments

4 pages, needs Elsevier macro espcr2.sty, contribution to the Third Meeting on Constrained Dynamics and Quantum Gravity, Sardegna 1999

R2 v1 2026-07-22T07:47:55.915Z