The third structure function

Abstract

We re-consider the graviton self-energy induced by a loop of massless, minimally coupled scalars on de Sitter background. On flat space background it can be represented as a sum of two tensor differential operators acting on scalar structure functions. On a general background these differential operators can be constructed from the linearized Ricci scalar and the linearized Weyl tensor. However, in cosmology one requires a third contribution which we derive here.