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Alicki, R., Barenboim, G., & Jenkins, A. (2025). The irreversible relaxation of inflation. Phys. Lett. B, 866, 139519–6pp.
Abstract: Based on the results of a previous analysis of the Markovian master equation for the irreversible evolution of an open system embedded in de Sitter space [7], we include in the cosmological Friedmann equations a contribution from the presence of a physical bath at temperature T-dS = h//2 pi, where h is the Hubble parameter. We show that this provides a mechanism for the irreversible relaxation of the cosmological constant and a graceful exit to inflation, without need for subsequent reheating. Thermal particle production during inflation gives adiabatic, Gaussian, and approximately scale-invariant cosmological perturbations. We thus obtain the main features of inflation without any inflaton potential. To clarify the thermodynamic interpretation of these results, we consider the analogy of this irreversible relaxation to superfluorescence in quantum optics.
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Alicki, R., Barenboim, G., & Jenkins, A. (2023). Quantum thermodynamics of de Sitter space. Phys. Rev. D, 108(12), 123530–13pp.
Abstract: We consider the local physics of an open quantum system embedded in an expanding three-dimensional space x, evolving in cosmological time t, weakly coupled to a massless quantum field. We derive the corresponding Markovian master equation for the system's nonunitary evolution and show that, for a de Sitter space with Hubble parameter h 1/4 const, the background fields act as a physical heat bath with temperature TdS 1/4 h/2z. The energy density of this bath obeys the Stefan-Boltzmann law pdS proportional to h4. We comment on how these results clarify the thermodynamics of de Sitter space and support previous arguments for its instability in the infrared. The cosmological implications are considered in an accompanying Letter.
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