Scalar correlation functions in de Sitter space from the stochastic spectral expansion

Abstract

We consider light scalar fields during inflation and show how the stochastic spectral expansion method can be used to calculate two-point correlation functions of an arbitrary local function of the field in de Sitter space. In particular, we use this approach for a massive scalar field with quartic self-interactions to calculate the fluctuation spectrum of the density contrast and compare it to other approximations. We find that neither Gaussian nor linear approximations accurately reproduce the power spectrum, and in fact always overestimate it. For example, for a scalar field with only a quartic term in the potential, $V=\lambda\phi^4/4$, we find a blue spectrum with spectral index $n-1=0.579\sqrt{\lambda}$.