Initial states and infrared physics in locally de Sitter spacetime
  The long wavelength physics in a de Sitter region depends on the initial
quantum state. While such long wavelength physics is under control for massive
fields near the Hartle-Hawking vacuum state, such initial states make unnatural
assumptions about initial data outside the region of causal contact of a local
observer. We argue that a reasonable approximation to a maximum entropy state,
one that makes minimal assumptions outside an observer's horizon volume, is one
where a cutoff is placed on a surface bounded by timelike geodesics, just
outside the horizon. For sufficiently early times, such a cutoff induces
secular logarithmic divergences with the expansion of the region. For massive
fields, these effects sum to finite corrections at sufficiently late times. The
difference between the cutoff correlators and Hartle-Hawking correlators
provides a measure of the theoretical uncertainty due to lack of knowledge of
the initial state in causally disconnected regions. These differences are
negligible for primordial inflation, but can become significant during epochs
with very long-lived de Sitter regions, such as we may be entering now.
