Stochastic inflation and nonlinear gravity

We show how nonlinear effects of the metric and scalar fields may be included in stochastic inflation. Our formalism can be applied to non-Gaussian fluctuation models for galaxy formation. Fluctuations with wavelengths larger than the horizon length are governed by a network of Langevin equations for the physical fields. Stochastic noise terms arise from quantum fluctuations that are assumed to become classical at horizon crossing and that then contribute to the background. Using Hamilton-Jacobi methods, we solve the Arnowitt-Deser-Misner constraint equations which allows us to separate the growing modes from the decaying ones in the drift phase following each stochastic impulse. We argue that the most reasonable choice of time hypersurfaces for the Langevin system during inflation is T=ln (Ha), where H and a are the local values of the Hubble parameter and the scale factor, since T is the natural time for evolving the short-wavelength scalar field fluctuations in an inhomogeneous background. We derive a Fokker-Planck equation which describes how the probability distribution of scalar field values at a given spatial point evolves in T. Analytic Green's-function solutions obtained for a single scalar field self-interacting through an exponential potential are used to demonstrate (1) if the initial condition of the Hubble parameter is chosen to be consistent with microwave-background limits, H (₀) /m_10^-4, then the fluctuations obey Gaussian statistics to a high precision, independent of the time hypersurface choice and operator-ordering ambiguities in the Fokker-Planck equation, and (2) for scales much larger than our present observable patch of the Universe, the distribution is non-Gaussian, with a tail extending to large energy densities; although there are no observable manifestations, it does show eternal inflation. Lattice simulations of our Langevin network for the exponential potential demonstrate how spatial correlations are incorporated. An initially homogeneous and isotropic lattice develops fluctuations as more and more quantum fluctuation modes leave the horizon, yielding Gaussian contour maps for a region corresponding to our observable patch and non-Gaussian contour maps for the ultra-large-scale structure of the Universe. Inflation models with extended non-Gaussian tails at observable scales would lead to a radically different cosmic structure than Gaussian perturbations give.