Semiclassical treatment of pair creation in de Sitter space

Abstract

We study a massive scalar field theory in de Sitter space. Using worldline instanton approach, we calculate probability of pair production in weak-field limit. In addition to exponential factor we derive pre-exponential factor. Within this approach the vanishing probability for odd-dimensional de Sitter space gets a clear geometrical interpretation. We find leading contribution to imaginary part of two point correlator in $\phi^3$-theory.