Classicalization of quantum fluctuations at the Planck scale in the Rh = ct universe

Abstract

The quantum to classical transition of fluctuations in the early universe is still not completely understood. Some headway has been made incorporating the effects of decoherence and the squeezing of states, though the methods and procedures continue to be challenged. But new developments in the analysis of the most recent Planck data suggest that the primordial power spectrum has a cutoff associated with the very first quantum fluctuation to have emerged into the semi-classical universe from the Planck domain at about the Planck time. In this paper, we examine the implications of this result on the question of classicalization, and demonstrate that the birth of quantum fluctuations at the Planck scale would have been a ‘process’ supplanting the need for a ‘measurement’ in quantum mechanics. Emerging with a single wavenumber, these fluctuations would have avoided the interference between different degrees of freedom in a superposed state. Moreover, the implied scalar-field potential had an equation-of-state consistent with the zero active mass condition in general relativity, allowing the quantum fluctuations to emerge in their ground state with a time-independent frequency. They were therefore effectively quantum harmonic oscillators with classical correlations in phase space from the very beginning. © 2021 The Author(s)