Trans-Planckian Effects in Inflationary Cosmology and the Modified Uncertainty Principle

  • 15 April 2002
Abstract
There are good indications that fundamental physics gives rise to a modified space-momentum uncertainty relation that implies the existence of a minimum length scale. We implement this idea in the free scalar field theory that describes density perturbations in flat Robertson-Walker space-time. This leads to a non-linear time-dependent dispersion relation that encodes the effects of Planck scale physics in the inflationary epoch. Unbounded dispersion relations are excluded by the minimum length principle. We also find red-shift induced modifications of the field theory that tend to dampen the fluctuations at trans-Planckian momenta. In the specific example considered, this feature helps determine the initial state of the fluctuations, leading to a flat power spectrum.

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