Renormalization of the 2PI Hartree-Fock approximation on a de Sitter background in the broken phase

Abstract

The infrared effects for light minimally coupled scalar fields with quartic self-interaction in de Sitter space is investigated using the 2PI effective action formalism. This formalism partially resums infinite series of loop diagrams, and enables us to circumvent the IR divergence problem for a massless minimally coupled scalar field in de Sitter space. It is anticipated that nonperturbative infrared effects generate a curvature-induced mass and self-regulate the IR divergence. However, due to its nonperturbative nature, the renormalization prescription is a nontrivial task. To calculate physical quantities, an appropriate renormalization prescription is required. In this paper, we will show that the MS-like scheme is possible at the Hartree-Fock truncation of the 2PI effective action, and infinite series of divergent terms are needed as counterterms. The phase structure and the quantum backreaction to Einstein's field equation are calculated.