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Inflation, quantum fields, and CMB anisotropies

  • Essay Awarded by the Gravity Research Foundation
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Abstract

Inflationary cosmology has proved to be the most successful at predicting the properties of the anisotropies observed in the cosmic microwave background (CMB). In this essay we show that quantum field renormalization significantly influences the generation of primordial perturbations and hence the expected measurable imprint of cosmological inflation on the CMB. However, the new predictions remain in agreement with observation, and in fact favor the simplest forms of inflation. In the near future, observations of the influence of gravitational waves from the early universe on the CMB will test our new predictions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Física Teórica and IFIC, Facultad de Física, Universidad de Valencia-CSIC, Burjassot, 46100, Valencia, Spain

    Iván Agulló & José Navarro-Salas

  2. Physics Department, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, P. O. Box 413, Milwaukee, WI, 53201, USA

    Iván Agulló & Leonard Parker

  3. Instituto de Estructura de la Materia, CSIC, Serrano 121, 28006, Madrid, Spain

    Gonzalo J. Olmo

  4. Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Waterloo, ON, N2L 2Y5, Canada

    Gonzalo J. Olmo

Authors
  1. Iván Agulló
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  2. José Navarro-Salas
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  3. Gonzalo J. Olmo
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  4. Leonard Parker
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Iván Agulló.

Additional information

Fourth Award in the 2009 Essay Competition of the Gravity Research Foundation.

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Agulló, I., Navarro-Salas, J., Olmo, G.J. et al. Inflation, quantum fields, and CMB anisotropies. Gen Relativ Gravit 41, 2301–2306 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10714-009-0850-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10714-009-0850-6

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