Abstract
We consider a model quantum field theory with a scalar quantum field in de Sitter space-time in a Bohmian version with a field ontology, i.e., an actual field configuration \(\varphi (\mathbf{x},t)\) guided by a wave function on the space of field configurations. We analyze the asymptotics at late times (\(t\rightarrow \infty \)) and provide reason to believe that for more or less any wave function and initial field configuration, every Fourier coefficient \(\varphi _\mathbf{k}(t)\) of the field is asymptotically of the form \(c_\mathbf{k}\sqrt{1+\mathbf{k}^2 \exp (-2Ht)/H^2}\), where the limiting coefficients \(c_\mathbf{k}=\varphi _\mathbf{k}(\infty )\) are independent of t and H is the Hubble constant quantifying the expansion rate of de Sitter space-time. In particular, every field mode \(\varphi _\mathbf{k}\) possesses a limit as \(t\rightarrow \infty \) and thus “freezes.” This result is relevant to the question whether Boltzmann brains form in the late universe according to this theory, and supports that they do not.
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Notes
It is hard to give an exact condition on the wave function and the initial field configuration under which (4) is valid. But our reasoning suggests that it is very commonly valid, at least as commonly as Bohmian trajectories of non-relativistic oscillators are smooth—a property usually taken for granted in the physics literature.
Here is the difficulty. It is clear that the relation (8) needs to be replaced by \(\mathrm {d}t= a\,\mathrm {d}\eta \), (10) by \(y=a\varphi \), and factors of \(1/\eta \) by \(-a'/a\) in (11), (13), and (22). But the present result depends on the simple explicit solution (30)–(32) to the coupled ordinary differential equations (21)–(23), and with \(1/\eta \) in (22) replaced by \(-a'/a\) I do not know an analogous explicit solution.
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Acknowledgments
The author acknowledges support from the John Templeton Foundation, Grant No. 37433. I thank Shelly Goldstein and Ward Struyve for helpful discussions and two anonymous referees for their suggestions.
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Tumulka, R. Long-time asymptotics of a Bohmian scalar quantum field in de Sitter space-time. Gen Relativ Gravit 48, 2 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10714-015-1995-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10714-015-1995-0