Eur. Phys. J. C (2017) 77: 676
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-017-5263-1

Regular Article - Theoretical Physics

Stochastic quantum inflation for a canonical scalar field with linear self-interaction potential

CENTRA, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Av. Rovisco Pais 1, Lisboa, Portugal

^* e-mail: grigorios.panotopoulos@tecnico.ulisboa.pt

Received: 20 February 2017
Accepted: 26 September 2017
Published online: 13 October 2017

Abstract

We apply Starobinsky’s formalism of stochastic inflation to the case of a massless minimally coupled scalar field with linear self-interaction potential. We solve the corresponding Fokker–Planck equation exactly, and we obtain analytical expressions for the stochastic expectation values.