Physical scale adiabatic regularization in cosmological spacetimes

Abstract: We develop a new regularization method for the stress-energy tensor and the two-point function of free quantum scalar fields propagating in cosmological spacetimes. We proceed by extending the adiabatic regularization scheme with the introduction of two additional mass scales. By setting them to the order of the physical scale of the studied scenario, we obtain ultraviolet-regularized quantities that do not distort the power spectra amplitude at the infrared scales amplified by the expansion of the universe. This is not ensured by the standard adiabatic approach. We also show how our proposed subtraction terms can be interpreted as a renormalization of coupling constants in the Einstein equations. We finally illustrate our proposed regularization method in two scenarios of cosmological interest: de Sitter inflation and geometric reheating.