# Is Patience a Virtue? Cosmic Censorship of Infrared Effects in de Sitter

## TL;DR

This paper investigates whether long wavelength modes generated during inflation can be observed by a patient observer and finds that quantum uncertainties prevent their detection, despite classical measurability.

## Contribution

It introduces the concept of a patient observer in de Sitter space and argues quantum uncertainties censor the observability of infrared effects.

## Key findings

- Quantum uncertainties prevent long mode observation by patient observers.
- Classically, measuring long modes is possible, but quantum effects censor this.
- Infrared effects remain unobservable to local observers due to quantum limitations.

## Abstract

While the accumulation of long wavelength modes during inflation wreaks havoc on the large scale structure of spacetime, the question of even observability of their presence by any local observer has lead to considerable confusion. Though it is commonly agreed that infrared effects are not visible to a single sub-horizon observer at late times, we argue that the question is less trivial for a \emph{patient observer} who has lived long enough to have a record of the state before the soft mode was created. Though classically there is no obstruction to measuring this effect locally, we give several indications that quantum mechanical uncertainties censor the effect, rendering the observation of long modes ultimately forbidden.