Quantum backreaction in evolving FLRW spacetimes
  Quantum fluctuations of a nonminimally coupled scalar field in D-dimensional
homogeneous and isotropic background are calculated within the operator
formalism in curved models with time evolutions of the scale factor that allow
smooth transitions between contracting and expanding and between decelerating
and accelerating regimes. The coincident propagator is derived and used to
compute the one-loop backreaction from the scalar field. The inflationary
infrared divergences are absent in Bunch-Davies vacuum when taking into account
a preceding cosmological era or spatial curvature which can be either positive
or negative. It is found that asymptotically, the backreaction energy density
in the minimally coupled case grows logarithmically with the scale factor in
quasi-de Sitter space, and in a class of models decays in slow-roll inflation
and grows as a power-law during super-inflation. The backreaction increases
generically in a contracting phase or in the presence of a negative nonminimal
coupling. The effects of the coupling and renormalization scale upon the
quantum fluctuations together with the novel features due to nontrivial time
evolution and spatial curvature are clarified with exact solutions and
numerical examples.
