Influence functional approach to decoherence during Inflation

TL;DR

This paper applies the influence functional and master equation to model the quantum-to-classical transition of inflationary fluctuations, analyzing decoherence times for long-wavelength modes during cosmic inflation.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach using influence functional methods to describe decoherence in inflationary cosmology, linking quantum fluctuations to classical perturbations.

Findings

Decoherence times for long-wavelength modes are computed.

Decoherence occurs rapidly compared to other inflationary time scales.

The approach clarifies the quantum-to-classical transition in cosmological perturbations.

Abstract

We show how the quantum to classical transition of the cosmological fluctuations produced during inflation can be described by means of the influence functional and the master equation. We split the inflaton field into the system-field (long-wavelength modes), and the environment, represented by its own short-wavelength modes. We compute the decoherence times for the system-field modes and compare them with the other time scales of the model.