A differential representation of cosmological wavefunctions
Publication Date
2022Journal Title
Journal of High Energy Physics
ISSN
1029-8479
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Volume
2022
Issue
4
Language
en
Type
Article
This Version
VoR
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Hillman, A., & Pajer, E. (2022). A differential representation of cosmological wavefunctions. Journal of High Energy Physics, 2022 (4) https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP04(2022)012
Abstract
Our understanding of quantum field theory rests largely on explicit and
controlled calculations in perturbation theory. Because of this, much recent
effort has been devoted to improve our grasp of perturbative techniques on
cosmological spacetimes. While scattering amplitudes in flat space at tree
level are obtained from simple algebraic operations, things are harder for
cosmological observables. Indeed, computing cosmological correlation functions
or the associated wavefunction coefficients requires evaluating a growing
number of nested time integrals already at tree level, which is computationally
challenging. Here, we present a new "differential" representation of the
cosmological wavefunction in de Sitter spacetime that obviates this problem for
a large class of phenomenologically relevant theories. Given any tree-level
Feynman-Witten diagram, we give simple algebraic rules to write down a seed
function and a differential operator that transforms it into the desired
wavefunction coefficient for any scale-invariant, parity-invariant theory of
massless scalars and gravitons with general boost-breaking interactions. In
particular, this applies to large classes of phenomenologically relevant
theories such as those described by the effective field theory of inflation or
solid inflation. Trading nested bulk time integrals for derivatives on boundary
kinematical data provides a great computational advantage, especially for
processes involving many vertices.
Keywords
Regular Article - Theoretical Physics, Early Universe Particle Physics, Effective Field Theories, Space-Time Symmetries, Models of Quantum Gravity
Identifiers
jhep04(2022)012, 18119
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP04(2022)012
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/335782
Rights
Licence:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Statistics
Total file downloads (since January 2020). For more information on metrics see the
IRUS guide.
Recommended or similar items
The current recommendation prototype on the Apollo Repository will be turned off on 03 February 2023. Although the pilot has been fruitful for both parties, the service provider IKVA is focusing on horizon scanning products and so the recommender service can no longer be supported. We recognise the importance of recommender services in supporting research discovery and are evaluating offerings from other service providers. If you would like to offer feedback on this decision please contact us on: support@repository.cam.ac.uk