Video URL

https://pirsa.org/06020000

Inflationary cosmology as a probe of primordial quantum mechanics

Valentini, A. (2006). Inflationary cosmology as a probe of primordial quantum mechanics. Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. https://pirsa.org/06020000

Valentini, Antony. Inflationary cosmology as a probe of primordial quantum mechanics. Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Feb. 01, 2006, https://pirsa.org/06020000 

          @misc{ scivideos_PIRSA:06020000,
            doi = {10.48660/06020000},
            url = {https://pirsa.org/06020000},
            author = {Valentini, Antony},
            keywords = {Quantum Foundations, Cosmology},
            language = {en},
            title = {Inflationary cosmology as a probe of primordial quantum mechanics},
            publisher = {Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics},
            year = {2006},
            month = {feb},
            note = {PIRSA:06020000 see, \url{https://scivideos.org/pirsa/06020000}}
          }

Antony Valentini Clemson University

DOI 10.48660/06020000
Source Repository PIRSA
Collection
Talk Type Scientific Series
Subject

Abstract

It is shown that inflationary cosmology may be used to test the statistical predictions of quantum theory at very short distances. Hidden-variables theories, such as the pilot-wave theory of de Broglie and Bohm, allow the existence of vacuum states with non-standard field fluctuations (“quantum non-equilibrium”). It is shown that such non-equilibrium vacua lead to statistical anomalies, such as a breaking of scale invariance for the primordial power spectrum. The results depend only weakly on the details of the de Broglie-Bohm dynamics. Recent observations of the cosmic microwave background are used to set limits on violations of quantum theory in the early universe.