TY - JOUR
T1 - Probing the Big Bang with quantum fields
AU - Ashtekar, Abhay
AU - De Lorenzo, Tommaso
AU - Schneider, Marc
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the NSF grants PHY-1505411 and PHY-1806356, the Eberly Chair funds of Penn State, and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021. Advances in Theoretical and Mathematical Physics.All Rights Reserved.
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - By carrying out a systematic investigation of linear, test quantum fields ˆϕ(x) in cosmological space-times, we show that ˆϕ(x) remain well-defined across the big bang as operator valued distributions in a large class of Friedmann, Lemaˆıtre, Robertson, Walker space-times, including radiation and dust filled universes. In particular, the expectation values ⟨ˆϕ(x) ˆϕ(x′)⟩ are well-defined bidistributions in the extended space-time in spite of the big bang singularity. Interestingly, correlations between fields evaluated at spatially and temporally separated points exhibit an asymmetry that is reminiscent of the Belinskii, Khalatnikov, Lifshitz behavior. The renormalized products of fields ⟨ˆϕ2(x)⟩ren and ⟨ ˆ Tab(x)⟩ren also remain well-defined as distributions. Conformal coupling is not necessary for these considerations to hold.
AB - By carrying out a systematic investigation of linear, test quantum fields ˆϕ(x) in cosmological space-times, we show that ˆϕ(x) remain well-defined across the big bang as operator valued distributions in a large class of Friedmann, Lemaˆıtre, Robertson, Walker space-times, including radiation and dust filled universes. In particular, the expectation values ⟨ˆϕ(x) ˆϕ(x′)⟩ are well-defined bidistributions in the extended space-time in spite of the big bang singularity. Interestingly, correlations between fields evaluated at spatially and temporally separated points exhibit an asymmetry that is reminiscent of the Belinskii, Khalatnikov, Lifshitz behavior. The renormalized products of fields ⟨ˆϕ2(x)⟩ren and ⟨ ˆ Tab(x)⟩ren also remain well-defined as distributions. Conformal coupling is not necessary for these considerations to hold.
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U2 - 10.4310/ATMP.2021.V25.N7.A1
DO - 10.4310/ATMP.2021.V25.N7.A1
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85134532843
SN - 1095-0761
VL - 25
SP - 1651
EP - 1702
JO - Advances in Theoretical and Mathematical Physics
JF - Advances in Theoretical and Mathematical Physics
IS - 7
ER -