Consistent effective theory of long-wavelength cosmological perturbations
Abstract
Effective field theory provides a perturbative framework to study the evolution of cosmological large-scale structure. We investigate the underpinnings of this approach, and suggest new ways to compute correlation functions of cosmological observables. We find that, in contrast with quantum field theory, the appropriate effective theory of classical cosmological perturbations involves interactions that are nonlocal in time. We describe an alternative to the usual approach of smoothing the perturbations, based on a path-integral formulation of the renormalization group equations. This technique allows for improved handling of short-distance modes that are perturbatively generated by long-distance interactions.
Additional Information
© 2014 American Physical Society. Received 7 November 2013; published 11 July 2014. We thank Clifford Cheung and Mark Wise for helpful conversations. This research is funded in part by DOE Grant No. DE-FG02-92ER40701 and by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation through Grant No. 776 to the Caltech Moore Center for Theoretical Cosmology and Physics. The work of S. L. is supported by a John A. McCone Postdoctoral Fellowship.Attached Files
Published - PhysRevD.90.023518.pdf
Submitted - 1310.2920v2.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 52016
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20141120-145800084
- Department of Energy (DOE)
- DE-FG02-92ER40701
- Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
- 776
- John A. McCone Postdoctoral Fellowship
- Created
-
2014-11-21Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-10Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Moore Center for Theoretical Cosmology and Physics