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Decoherence in Inflation

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dc.date.accessioned 2016-05-30T10:24:32Z und
dc.date.accessioned 2017-10-24T12:04:07Z
dc.date.available 2016-05-30T10:24:32Z und
dc.date.available 2017-10-24T12:04:07Z
dc.date.issued 2016-05-30T10:24:32Z
dc.identifier.uri http://radr.hulib.helsinki.fi/handle/10138.1/5521 und
dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/10138.1/5521
dc.title Decoherence in Inflation en
ethesis.discipline Theoretical Physics en
ethesis.discipline Teoreettinen fysiikka fi
ethesis.discipline Teoretisk fysik sv
ethesis.discipline.URI http://data.hulib.helsinki.fi/id/C29de80f-21cd-424a-b706-b564d642b058
ethesis.department.URI http://data.hulib.helsinki.fi/id/3acb09b1-e6a2-4faa-b677-1a1b03285b66
ethesis.department Institutionen för fysik sv
ethesis.department Department of Physics en
ethesis.department Fysiikan laitos fi
ethesis.faculty Matematisk-naturvetenskapliga fakulteten sv
ethesis.faculty Matemaattis-luonnontieteellinen tiedekunta fi
ethesis.faculty Faculty of Science en
ethesis.faculty.URI http://data.hulib.helsinki.fi/id/8d59209f-6614-4edd-9744-1ebdaf1d13ca
ethesis.university.URI http://data.hulib.helsinki.fi/id/50ae46d8-7ba9-4821-877c-c994c78b0d97
ethesis.university Helsingfors universitet sv
ethesis.university University of Helsinki en
ethesis.university Helsingin yliopisto fi
dct.creator Tomberg, Eemeli
dct.issued 2016
dct.language.ISO639-2 eng
dct.abstract In this thesis, we study the decoherence of cosmological scalar perturbations during inflation. We first discuss the FRW model and cosmic inflation. Inflation is a period of accelerated expansion in the early universe, in typical models caused by a scalar field called inflaton. We review cosmological perturbation theory, where perturbations of the inflaton field and scalar degrees of freedom of the metric tensor are combined into the gauge-invariant Sasaki-Mukhanov variable. We quantize this variable using canonical quantization. Then, we discuss how interactions between the perturbations and their environment can lead to decoherence. In decoherence, the reduced density operator of the perturbations becomes diagonal with respect to a particular pointer basis. We argue that the pointer basis for the cosmological scalar perturbations consists of approximate eigenstates of the field value operator. Finally, we discuss how decoherence can help understand the transition from quantum theory to classical perturbation theory, and justify the standard treatment of perturbations and their initial conditions in cosmology. We conclude that since decoherence should not spoil the observationally successful predictions of this standard treatment, it is unlikely that the actual amount of decoherence could be observed in, say, the CMB radiation. en
dct.language en
ethesis.language.URI http://data.hulib.helsinki.fi/id/languages/eng
ethesis.language English en
ethesis.language englanti fi
ethesis.language engelska sv
ethesis.thesistype pro gradu-avhandlingar sv
ethesis.thesistype pro gradu -tutkielmat fi
ethesis.thesistype master's thesis en
ethesis.thesistype.URI http://data.hulib.helsinki.fi/id/thesistypes/mastersthesis
dct.identifier.urn URN:NBN:fi-fe2017112251945
dc.type.dcmitype Text

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