Gravitational open effective field theory of inflation

TL;DR

This paper develops an open effective field theory framework for inflation within gravity, incorporating dissipation and identifying minimal operators that ensure consistent dynamics for scalar and tensor modes.

Contribution

It introduces a gravitational open EFT of inflation in the Schwinger-Keldysh formalism, focusing on minimal operators that produce consistent, dissipative inflationary models.

Findings

Constructed a gravitational open EFT for inflation.

Identified minimal open operators compatible with propagating modes.

Recovered dissipative inflationary models.

Abstract

We construct a gravitational open extension of the effective field theory of inflation in the Schwinger-Keldysh framework. While physical symmetries allow many open operators in the Schwinger-Keldysh action, most of them overconstrain the equations of motion, yielding inconsistent dynamics. We identify the minimal open operators compatible with propagating scalar and tensor modes and build the gravitational action, recovering dissipative models of inflation.