Enregistré dans:
| Auteurs principaux: | , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Preprint |
| Publié: |
2026
|
| Sujets: | |
| Accès en ligne: | https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.03961 |
| Tags: |
Ajouter un tag
Pas de tags, Soyez le premier à ajouter un tag!
|
| _version_ | 1866917495176167424 |
|---|---|
| author | Glavan, Dražen Klarić, Juraj Klose, Philipp Sawicki, Ignacy |
| author_facet | Glavan, Dražen Klarić, Juraj Klose, Philipp Sawicki, Ignacy |
| contents | Conservation of super-horizon tensor fluctuations is crucial for connecting inflation to observations. Starting from first principles, recent works have found violations of this conservation if free-streaming radiation is produced during reheating. We show that the non-conservation is sensitive to the radiation initial state, and argue that the physical state should be affected by tensor perturbations that are already present during reheating. The deviation from super-horizon conservation is then negligible, recovering the standard result from kinetic theory. In contrast, a globally homogeneous and isotropic plasma state leads to a large suppression of tensor amplitudes. This difference between the local (physical) and global thermal equilibrium settles the discrepancy between the older and recent literature. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_03961 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | On the importance of radiation-era initial conditions for tensor perturbations Glavan, Dražen Klarić, Juraj Klose, Philipp Sawicki, Ignacy High Energy Physics - Theory General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology High Energy Physics - Phenomenology Conservation of super-horizon tensor fluctuations is crucial for connecting inflation to observations. Starting from first principles, recent works have found violations of this conservation if free-streaming radiation is produced during reheating. We show that the non-conservation is sensitive to the radiation initial state, and argue that the physical state should be affected by tensor perturbations that are already present during reheating. The deviation from super-horizon conservation is then negligible, recovering the standard result from kinetic theory. In contrast, a globally homogeneous and isotropic plasma state leads to a large suppression of tensor amplitudes. This difference between the local (physical) and global thermal equilibrium settles the discrepancy between the older and recent literature. |
| title | On the importance of radiation-era initial conditions for tensor perturbations |
| topic | High Energy Physics - Theory General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology High Energy Physics - Phenomenology |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.03961 |