1108.1363 (G. Marozzi et al.)

Isotropic Observers and the Inflationary Backreaction Problem    [PDF]

G. Marozzi, G. P. Vacca

In an inflationary regime driven by a free massive inflaton we derive within a genuinely gauge invariant approach the backreaction effects due to long wavelength scalar fluctuations on the effective Hubble factor and equation of state with respect to a class of observers which sees an inhomogeneous and isotropic Universe. We find that, for such so-called isotropic observers, contrary to what happens for the observables defined by free-falling observers, there is an effect to leading order in the slow-roll parameter in the direction of slowing down the measured rate of expansion and of having an effective equation of state less de Sitter like. From a general point of view the isotropic observers result has to be considered complementary to other cases (observers) in helping to characterize the physical properties of the models under investigation.

View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1108.1363