De Broglie-Bohm Prediction of Quantum Violations for Cosmological Super-Hubble Modes

The hypothesis of quantum nonequilibrium at the big bang is shown to have observable consequences. For a scalar field on expanding space, we show that relaxation to quantum equilibrium (in de Broglie-Bohm theory) is suppressed for field modes whose quantum time evolution satisfies a certain inequality, resulting in a ‘freezing’ of early quantum nonequilibrium for these particular modes. For an early radiation-dominated expansion, the inequality implies a corresponding physical wavelength that is larger than the (instantaneous) Hubble radius. These results make it possible, for the first time, to make quantitative predictions for nonequilibrium deviations from quantum theory, in the context of specific cosmological models. We discuss some possible consequences: corrections to inflationary predictions for the cosmic microwave background, non-inflationary super-Hubble field correlations, and relic nonequilibrium particles.