Title:Â Stochastic inflation as an open quantum system
Abstract: In this talk, I will re-interpret the Starobinsky's stochastic inflation as an open quantum system. I will first show Schwinger-Keldysh path integral formulation in Liouville space for open quantum systems with Brownian motion as an example, then generalize this to the slow-roll inflationary cosmology. In the context of inflation, the environment is the long wavelength modes, and we systematically trace out the environment and derive an effective theory for the reduced density matrix, including deviations from exact de Sitter. I will show that the resulting master equation for this reduced cosmological density matrix is a Lindblad equation, which reduces to a Fokker–Planck equation for the diagonal elements up to higher orders in the slow-roll expansion, while also yielding a more complete equation in phase space for the Wigner function. I will also generalize this formulation to the global dS. EPT Zoom link: https://umd.zoom.us/j/98156909829?pwd=HKSCcZchnrAY9ncEKmUoW47Cve7XAJ.1 Meeting ID: 981 5690 9829 Passcode: UMDEPT