English

Quantum cosmological background superposition and perturbation predictions

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology 2025-12-09 v2

Abstract

Predictions from early universe cosmology typically concern primordial perturbations generated during epochs where effects arising from the quantum nature of gravity may be important; quantum vacuum fluctuations being stretched to cosmological scales during a phase of inflation. Quantizing the background is then done by assuming a single close-to-classical state over which perturbations grow, as well as a Born-Oppenheimer factorization throughout the relevant phase. We present a scenario in which although the latter factorization remains valid at all times, we allow the background state to be very non-classical by defining quantum trajectories through an eikonal approximation. We find that these trajectories asymptotically reproduce an almost classical behavior for the background, but the predictions for the power spectrum of perturbations can significantly differ.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2508.06231,
  title  = {Quantum cosmological background superposition and perturbation predictions},
  author = {Kratika Mazde and Lisa Mickel and Patrick Peter},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2508.06231},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

20 pages, 11 figures; v2: added section VII B, appendix, and minor clarifications

R2 v1 2026-07-01T04:40:54.195Z