Inflationary cosmology as a probe of primordial quantum mechanics

We show that inflationary cosmology may be used to test the statistical predictions of quantum theory at very short distances and at very early times. Hidden-variables theories, such as the pilot-wave theory of de Broglie and Bohm, allow the existence of vacuum states with nonstandard field fluctuations (“quantum nonequilibrium”). We show that inflationary expansion can transfer microscopic nonequilibrium to macroscopic scales, resulting in anomalous power spectra for the cosmic microwave background. The conclusions depend only weakly on the details of the de Broglie-Bohm dynamics. We discuss, in particular, the nonequilibrium breaking of scale invariance for the primordial (scalar) power spectrum. We also show how nonequilibrium can generate primordial perturbations with nonrandom phases and intermode correlations (primordial non-Gaussianity). We address the possibility of a low-power anomaly at large angular scales, and show how it might arise from a nonequilibrium suppression of quantum noise. Recent observations are used to set an approximate bound on violations of quantum theory in the early Universe.