Cosmological correlators at the loop level

Abstract Cosmological correlators encode rich information about physics at the Hubble scale and may exhibit characteristic oscillatory signals due to the exchange of massive particles. Although many 1-loop processes, especially those that break de Sitter (dS) boosts, can generate significant leading...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Zhehan Qin
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: SpringerOpen 2025-03-01
Series:Journal of High Energy Physics
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP03(2025)051
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1849737849531793408
author Zhehan Qin
author_facet Zhehan Qin
author_sort Zhehan Qin
collection DOAJ
description Abstract Cosmological correlators encode rich information about physics at the Hubble scale and may exhibit characteristic oscillatory signals due to the exchange of massive particles. Although many 1-loop processes, especially those that break de Sitter (dS) boosts, can generate significant leading signals for various particle models in cosmological collider physics, the precise results for these correlators or their full signals remain unknown due to the lack of symmetry. In this work, we apply the method of partial Mellin-Barnes (PMB) representation to the calculation of cosmological correlators at the loop level. As a first step, we use the PMB representation to calculate four-point cosmological correlators with bubble topology. We find that both the nonlocal and local signals arise from the factorized part, validating the cutting rules proposed in previous work, and are free from ultraviolet (UV) divergence. Furthermore, the UV divergence originates solely from the background piece and can be manifestly canceled by introducing the appropriate counterterm, similar to the procedure in flat spacetime. We also demonstrate how to renormalize the 1-loop correlators in Mellin space. After a consistency check with known results for the covariant case, we provide new analytical results for the signals generated from a nontrivial dS-boost-breaking bubble.
format Article
id doaj-art-a8c4d24f03a84ee799dd8f3efedc27ba
institution DOAJ
issn 1029-8479
language English
publishDate 2025-03-01
publisher SpringerOpen
record_format Article
series Journal of High Energy Physics
spelling doaj-art-a8c4d24f03a84ee799dd8f3efedc27ba2025-08-20T03:06:48ZengSpringerOpenJournal of High Energy Physics1029-84792025-03-012025314210.1007/JHEP03(2025)051Cosmological correlators at the loop levelZhehan Qin0Department of Physics, Tsinghua UniversityAbstract Cosmological correlators encode rich information about physics at the Hubble scale and may exhibit characteristic oscillatory signals due to the exchange of massive particles. Although many 1-loop processes, especially those that break de Sitter (dS) boosts, can generate significant leading signals for various particle models in cosmological collider physics, the precise results for these correlators or their full signals remain unknown due to the lack of symmetry. In this work, we apply the method of partial Mellin-Barnes (PMB) representation to the calculation of cosmological correlators at the loop level. As a first step, we use the PMB representation to calculate four-point cosmological correlators with bubble topology. We find that both the nonlocal and local signals arise from the factorized part, validating the cutting rules proposed in previous work, and are free from ultraviolet (UV) divergence. Furthermore, the UV divergence originates solely from the background piece and can be manifestly canceled by introducing the appropriate counterterm, similar to the procedure in flat spacetime. We also demonstrate how to renormalize the 1-loop correlators in Mellin space. After a consistency check with known results for the covariant case, we provide new analytical results for the signals generated from a nontrivial dS-boost-breaking bubble.https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP03(2025)051de Sitter spaceScattering AmplitudesEarly Universe Particle PhysicsCosmology of Theories BSM
spellingShingle Zhehan Qin
Cosmological correlators at the loop level
Journal of High Energy Physics
de Sitter space
Scattering Amplitudes
Early Universe Particle Physics
Cosmology of Theories BSM
title Cosmological correlators at the loop level
title_full Cosmological correlators at the loop level
title_fullStr Cosmological correlators at the loop level
title_full_unstemmed Cosmological correlators at the loop level
title_short Cosmological correlators at the loop level
title_sort cosmological correlators at the loop level
topic de Sitter space
Scattering Amplitudes
Early Universe Particle Physics
Cosmology of Theories BSM
url https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP03(2025)051
work_keys_str_mv AT zhehanqin cosmologicalcorrelatorsatthelooplevel