Inflationary entanglement

Abstract

We investigate the entanglement due to geometric corrections in particle creation during inflation. To do so, we propose a single-field inflationary scenario, nonminimally coupled to the scalar curvature of spacetime. We require particle production to be purely geometric, setting to zero the Bogoliubov coefficients and computing the $S$ matrix associated with spacetime perturbations, which are traced back to inflaton fluctuations. The corresponding particle density leads to a nonzero entanglement entropy whose effects are investigated at primordial time of Universe evolution. The possibility of modeling our particle candidate in terms of dark matter is discussed. The classical backreaction of inhomogeneities on the homogeneous dynamical background degrees of freedom is also studied and quantified in the slow-roll regime.