Speaker
Daniel Green
Date
Mon May 2nd 2022, 2:00pm
Affiliation
University of California, San Diego
Event Sponsor
Stanford Institute for Theoretical Physics
Location
Varian 355

Abstract: The history of perturbative calculations in de Sitter space is littered with confusing and often contradictory results. The challenge is primarily the technical difficulty in performing loop calculations in de Sitter but the implications are relevant to the observational consequences of inflation and our understanding of de Sitter space itself. In this talk, I will review the Soft de Sitter Effective Theory, which simplifies the problem of calculating and interpreting these calculations. I will show that most previous results can be understood as a consequence of RG flow in this EFT. I will then discuss in detail the implications for interacting scalars in de Sitter and the phase transition to slow-roll eternal inflation.