Quantum origin of the primordial fluctuation spectrum and its statistics

TL;DR

This paper discusses a quantum-based approach to explain the origin of cosmic structure, proposing a wave function collapse mechanism that offers new insights into the primordial fluctuation spectrum and its statistical properties.

Contribution

It introduces a novel quantum collapse model to address the generation of cosmic inhomogeneities and explores its implications for the primordial spectrum and non-Gaussianities.

Findings

Provides a new framework for primordial fluctuation analysis

Suggests distinct signatures of non-Gaussianities in cosmic data

Offers alternative explanations for cosmic microwave background features

Abstract

The usual account for the origin of cosmic structure during inflation is not fully satisfactory, as it lacks a physical mechanism capable of generating the inhomogeneity and anisotropy of our Universe, from an exactly homogeneous and isotropic initial state associated with the early inflationary regime. The proposal in [A. Perez, H. Sahlmann, and D. Sudarsky, Classical Quantum Gravity, 23, 2317, (2006)] considers the spontaneous dynamical collapse of the wave function, as a possible answer to that problem. In this work, we review briefly the difficulties facing the standard approach, as well as the answers provided by the above proposal and explore their relevance to the investigations concerning the characterization of the primordial spectrum and other statistical aspects of the cosmic microwave background and large-scale matter distribution. We will see that the new approach leads to novel ways of considering some of the relevant questions, and, in particular, to distinct characterizations of the non-Gaussianities that might have left imprints on the available data.