Inflationary quantum dynamics and backreaction using a classical-quantum correspondence

Abstract

Abstract We study inflationary dynamics using a recently introduced classical-quantum correspondence for investigating the backreaction of a quantum mechanical degree of freedom to a classical background. Using specifically a coupled Einstein–Klein–Gordon system, an approximation that holds well during the very early inflationary era when modes are very deep inside the Hubble horizon, we show that the backreaction of a mode of the quantum field will renormalize the Hubble parameter only if the mode’s wavelength is longer than some threshold Planckian length scale. Otherwise, the mode will destabilize the inflationary era. We also present an approximate analytical solution that supports the existence of such short-wavelength threshold and compare the results of the classical-quantum correspondence with the traditional perturbative-iterative method in semiclassical gravity.