Emergence of classicality for primordial fluctuations: Concepts and analogies
May, 199824 pages
Published in:
- Annalen Phys. 7 (1998) 137-158
e-Print:
- gr-qc/9805014 [gr-qc]
Report number:
- FREIBURG-THEP-98-7,
- FREIBURG-THP-98-7
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Abstract: (arXiv)
We clarify the way in which cosmological perturbations of quantum origin, produced during inflation, assume classical properties. Two features play an important role in this process: First, the dynamics of fluctuations which are presently on large cosmological scales leads to a very peculiar state (highly squeezed) that is indistinguishable, in a precise sense, from a classical stochastic process. This holds for almost all initial quantum states. Second, the process of decoherence by interaction with the environment distinguishes the field amplitude basis as a robust pointer basis. We discuss in detail the interplay between these features and use simple analogies such as the free quantum particle to illustrate the main conceptual issues.Note:
- 25 pages, Latex, typos corrected, reference added
- inflation
- density: perturbation
- spectrum: fluctuation
- model: stochastic
- classical
- decoherence
- quantum mechanics
- squeezed state
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