Gravity Waves from Quantum Stress Tensor Fluctuations in Inflation

Understand

We consider the effects of the quantum stress tensor fluctuations of a conformal field in generating gravity waves in inflationary models.

• We find a non-scale invariant, non-Gaussian contribution which depends upon the total expansion factor between an initial time and the end of inflation.
• This spectrum of gravity wave perturbations is an illustration of a negative power spectrum, which is possible in quantum field theory.
• We discuss possible choices for the initial conditions.