corner
corner
APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. D » Volume 37 » Issue 12
< Previous Article | Next Article >

Phys. Rev. D 37, 3522–3532 (1988)

Semiclassical physics and quantum fluctuations

Download: PDF (496 kB) Buy this article Export: BibTeX or EndNote (RIS)

Wayne Boucher
Enrico Fermi Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637
Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, Cambridge University, Cambridge, England

Jennie Traschen
Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637
Department of Physics, University of California–Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California 93106

Received 24 February 1988; published in the issue dated 15 June 1988

We investigate theories in which classical and quantum-mechanical degrees of freedom interact dynamically. In commonly used semiclassical theories, such as those used to study inflationary-universe models, quantum fluctuations do not affect the dynamics of the classical variables. We construct a new semiclassical theory in which the quantum and classical fluctuations do affect each other; the Wigner probability function turns out to be a special case. Relevance to calculations of perturbations from inflation are discussed.

© 1988 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevD.37.3522
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevD.37.3522
PACS:
98.80.Cq, 03.65.Sq
 
< Previous Article | Next Article >