Fluctuation-dissipation relation in cosmic microwave background

Abstract

We study the fluctuation-dissipation relation for sound waves in the cosmic microwave background (CMB), employing effective field theory (EFT) for fluctuating hydrodynamics. Treating sound waves as the linear response to thermal radiation, we establish the fluctuation-dissipation relation within a cosmological framework. While dissipation is elucidated in established linear cosmological perturbation theory, the standard Boltzmann theory overlooks the associated noise, possibly contributing to inconsistencies in Lambda Cold Dark Matter ($Λ$CDM) cosmology. This paper employs EFT for fluctuating hydrodynamics in cosmological perturbation theory, deriving sound wave noise. Notably, the long-time limit of the noise spectrum is independent of viscosity details, resembling a Brownian motion bounded in a harmonic potential. The net energy transfer between the sound wave system and the radiation environment reaches a balance within Hubble time, suggesting the thermal equilibrium of the sound waves themselves. The induced density power spectrum is characterized as white noise dependent on the inverse of the entropy density, which is negligibly small on the CMB scale. The energy density of the entire sound wave system scales as $a^{-4}$, akin to radiation. While the numerical factor is not determined in the present calculation, the back reaction of the sound wave system to the background radiation may not be negligible, serving as a potential source for various fitting issues in $Λ$CDM cosmology.