Inflation and the semiclassical dynamics of a conformal scalar field

G. L. Alberghi, C. Appignani, R. Casadio, F. Sbisà, and A. Tronconi

Phys. Rev. D 77, 044002 – Published 1 February 2008

Abstract

We derive the semiclassical evolution of massless conformally coupled scalar matter in the de Sitter space-time from the Born-Oppenheimer reduction of the Wheeler-DeWitt equation. We find a remarkable difference with respect to the minimally coupled case: the effect of the quantum gravitational corrections does not depend on the momentum of the scalar mode up to second order in the Planck length and, therefore, there are no relevant corrections to the dispersion relation.

Received 8 August 2007

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.77.044002

Authors & Affiliations

G. L. Alberghi^1,2,*, C. Appignani^1,†, R. Casadio^1,‡, F. Sbisà^1,§, and A. Tronconi^1,∥

¹Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Bologna, and I.N.F.N., Sezione di Bologna, via Irnerio 46, 40126 Bologna, Italy
²Dipartimento di Astronomia, Università di Bologna, via Ranzani 1, 40127 Bologna, Italy

^*alberghi@bo.infn.it
^†appignani@bo.infn.it
^‡casadio@bo.infn.it
^§Fulvio.Sbisa@gmail.com
^∥tronconi@bo.infn.it

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Vol. 77, Iss. 4 — 15 February 2008

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Physical Review D

covering particles, fields, gravitation, and cosmology