METRIC FLUCTUATIONS IN DE SITTER SPACETIME IN STOCHASTIC GRAVITY.

Stochastic gravity extends semiclassical gravity by allowing for a systematic and self-consistent description of the metric fluctuations produced by the quantum fluctuations of the stress tensor. The effect of minimally coupled scalar fields with arbitrary mass in de Sitter spacetime is discussed, assuming that these fields are in the Bunch-Davies de Sitter invariant vacuum. The matter field fluctuations are described by the noise kernel which is obtained from the symmetrized two-point correlation of the stress tensor operator. The noise kernel is computed in terms of de Sitter invariant bi-tensors. It turns out that in a de Sitter background the two-point function of the linearized Einstein tensor, which is gauge invariant, is directly related to the noise kernel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]