Large-distance behaviour of the graviton two-point function in de Sitter spacetime

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that the logarithmic growth of the graviton two-point function in de Sitter space is a gauge artifact, showing it can be replicated by a pure-gauge two-point function, thus clarifying its physical significance.

Contribution

The authors explicitly show that the long-distance logarithmic behavior of the graviton two-point function is a gauge artifact by constructing a pure-gauge two-point function with identical behavior.

Findings

Logarithmic growth is a gauge artifact.

Pure-gauge two-point functions can reproduce the same behavior.

Clarification of the physical significance of the two-point function growth.

Abstract

It is known that the graviton two-point function for the de Sitter invariant "Euclidean" vacuum in a physical gauge grows logarithmically with distance in spatially-flat de Sitter spacetime. We show that this logarithmic behaviour is a gauge artifact by explicitly demonstrating that the same behaviour can be reproduced by a pure-gauge two-point function.