Quantum coherent states in cosmology

TL;DR

This paper explores how quantum coherent states evolve in cosmology, potentially explaining dark energy and inflation, and serving as initial conditions for bouncing universe models, emphasizing the importance of quantum corrections.

Contribution

It demonstrates that quantum coherent states can survive cosmic expansion when quantum corrections are included, linking them to dark energy and early universe inflation.

Findings

Quantum coherent states may form a cosmological condensate.

Full quantum corrections are essential for their survival.

Such states could explain dark energy and initial conditions for bouncing cosmology.

Abstract

Coherent states consist of superposition of infinite number of particles and do not have a classical analogue. We study their evolution in a FLRW cosmology and show that only when full quantum corrections are considered, they may survive the expansion of the Universe and form a global condensate. This state of matter can be the origin of accelerating expansion of the Universe, generally called dark energy, and inflation in the early universe. Additionally, such a quantum pool may be the ultimate environment for decoherence at shorter distances. If dark energy is a quantum coherent state, its dominant contribution to the total energy of the Universe at present provides a low entropy state which may be necessary as an initial condition for a new Big Bang in the framework of bouncing cosmology models.