Dynamical zero-temperature phase transitions and cosmic inflation/deflation

Abstract

For a rather general class of scenarios, sweeping through a zero-temperature phase transition by means of a time-dependent external parameter entails universal behavior: In the vicinity of the critical point, excitations behave as quantum fields in an expanding or contracting universe. The resulting effects such as the amplification or suppression of quantum fluctuations (due to horizon crossing, freezing, and squeezing) including the induced spectrum can be derived using the curved space-time analogy. The observed similarity entices the question of whether cosmic inflation itself might perhaps have been such a phase transition. PACS: 73.43.Nq, 04.62.+v, 98.80.Cq, 04.80.-y.