Origins of Thermalization in Semiclassical Cosmology

Abstract

We discuss the effect of `Rindler like' transformation in superspace on the WKB wavefunction in cosmology. In the transformed frame we find the density matrix of the WKB wavefunction is mixed, and this is the sign of a thermal system. This background independent result does not have the same interpretations of a particle thermalization in accelerated frames. One can however show the super space transformation is similar to a double Rindler transformation of real space-time coordinates in the semi-classical regime. We also discuss the implications of the super-space transformation in loop quantum cosmology.