arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to V. Mukhanov.
A brief introduction to the gauge invariant classical and quantum theory of cosmological perturbations is given. The formalism is applied to inflationary Universe models and yields a consistent and unified description of the generation and evolution of fluctuations. A general formula for the amplitude of cosmological perturbations in inflationary cosmology is derived.
We construct a model of gravity in 1+1 spacetime dimensions in which the solutions approach the Schwarzschild metric at large $r$ and de Sitter space far inside the horizon. Our model may be viewed as a two dimensional application of the `Limiting Curvature Construction' recently proposed by two of the authors.
A theory of gravitation is constructed in which all homogeneous and isotropic solutions are nonsingular, and in which all curvature invariants are bounded. All solutions for which curvature invariants approach their limiting values approach de Sitter space. The action for this theory is obtained by a higher derivative modification of Einstein's theory. We expect that our model can easily be generalized to solve the singularity problem also for anisotropic cosmologies.
We derive a formula for the nonequilibrium entropy of a classical stochastic field in terms of correlation functions of this field. The formalism is then applied to define the entropy of gravitational perturbations (both gravitational waves and density fluctuations). We calculate this entropy in a specific cosmological model (the inflationary Universe) and find that on scales of interest in cosmology the entropy in both density perturbations and gravitational waves exceeds the entropy of statistical fluctuations of the microwave background. The nonequilibrium entropy discussed here is a measure of loss of information about the system. We discuss the origin of the entropy in our cosmological models and compare the definition of entropy in terms of correlation functions with the microcanonical definition in quantum statistical mechanics.
We propose a general definition of nonequilibrium entropy of a classical stochastic field. As an example of particular interest in cosmology we apply this definition to compute the entropy of density perturbations in an inflationary Universe. On the scales of structures in the Universe, the entropy of density perturbations dominates over the statistical fluctuations of the entropy of cosmic microwave photons, indicating the relevance of the entropy of density fluctuations for structure formation.