High Energy Physics Seminar

Series: High Energy Physics Seminar Series

The Open Effective Field Theory of Inflation

Santiago Agüí-Salcedo, University of Chicago,

There is an increasing interest in the interplay between Open Quantum Systems and Inflationary Physics. A time-dependent background and limited access to the degrees of freedom invites the use of Open Quantum systems. It provides a more general framework than the unitary time evolution of a free state. In this talk, based on 2404.15416 and 2507.03103, we develop a local EFT for the scalar curvature perturbations subject to the dynamics of an open quantum system. We focus on recovering the scale-invariant power spectrum and its amplitude as a function of the dissipation (among other EFT parameters). Our results largely generalize the setup of warm inflation to general non-equilibrium cases. We also explore the different shapes of the bispectrum as a function of dissipation and its implementation in CMB codes. Time allowing, I will discuss current work on the inclusion of gravity in this description.

The talk is in 469 Lauritsen.

Contact [email protected] for Zoom link.

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For more information, please visit https://www.theory.caltech.edu/seminars/high-energy-physics-seminars.