{"paper":{"title":"No time to derive: unraveling total time derivatives in in-in perturbation theory","license":"http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/","headline":"","cross_cats":["gr-qc","hep-th"],"primary_cat":"astro-ph.CO","authors_text":"Lucas Pinol, Matteo Braglia","submitted_at":"2024-03-21T16:57:11Z","abstract_excerpt":"The in-in formalism provides a way to systematically organize the calculation of primordial correlation functions. Although its theoretical foundations are now firmly settled, the treatment of total time derivative interactions, incorrectly trivialized as ``boundary terms'', has been the subject of intense discussions and conceptual mistakes. In this work, we demystify the use of total time derivatives -- as well as terms proportional to the linear equations of motion -- and show that they can lead to artificially large contributions cancelling at different orders of the in-in operator formali"},"claims":{"count":0,"items":[],"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"source":{"id":"2403.14558","kind":"arxiv","version":2},"verdict":{"id":null,"model_set":{},"created_at":null,"strongest_claim":"","one_line_summary":"","pipeline_version":null,"weakest_assumption":"","pith_extraction_headline":""},"integrity":{"clean":true,"summary":{"advisory":0,"critical":0,"by_detector":{},"informational":0},"endpoint":"/pith/2403.14558/integrity.json","findings":[],"available":true,"detectors_run":[],"snapshot_sha256":"c28c3603d3b5d939e8dc4c7e95fa8dfce3d595e45f758748cecf8e644a296938"},"references":{"count":0,"sample":[],"resolved_work":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57","internal_anchors":0},"formal_canon":{"evidence_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"author_claims":{"count":0,"strong_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"builder_version":"pith-number-builder-2026-05-17-v1"}