Stochastic effects in anisotropic inflation

Abstract

We revisit the stochastic effects in the model of anisotropic inflation containing a $U(1)$ gauge field. We obtain the Langevin equations for the inflaton and gauge fields perturbations and solve them analytically. We show that if the initial value of the electric field is larger than its classical attractor value, then the random stochastic forces associated with the gauge field is balanced by the frictional damping (classical) force and the electric field falls into an equilibrium (stationary) regime. As a result, the classical attractor value of the electric field is replaced by its stationary value. We show that the probability of generating quadrupolar statistical anisotropy consistent with cosmic microwave background constraints can be significant.