Engineering topics

Roest, Diederik

Publications and source records attributed to Roest, Diederik.

7 records

DOE OSTI2022

Exceptional scalar theories in de Sitter space

The special galileon and Dirac-Born-Infeld (DBI) theories are effective field theories of a single scalar field that have many interesting properties in flat space. These theories can be extended to all maximally symmetric spaces, where their algebras of shift symmetries are simple. We study aspects of the curved space versions of these theories: for the special galileon, we find a new compact expression for its Lagrangian in de Sitter space and a field redefinition that relates it to the previous, more complicated formulation. This field redefinition reduces to the well-studied galileon duality redefinition in the flat space limit. For the DBI theory in de Sitter space, we discuss the brane and dilaton formulations of the theory and present strong evidence that these are related by a field redefinition. We also give an interpretation of the symmetries of these theories in terms of broken diffeomorphisms of de Sitter space.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

DOE OSTI2016

Sneutrino Inflation with α-attractors

Sneutrino inflation employs the fermionic partners of the inflaton and stabilizer field as right-handed neutrinos to realize the seesaw mechanism for light neutrino masses. We show that one can improve the latest version of this scenario and its consistency with the Planck data by embedding it in the theory of cosmological α-attractors.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2016

General sGoldstino inflation

We prove that all inflationary models, including those with dark energy after the end of inflation, can be embedded in minimal supergravity with a single chiral superfield. Moreover, the amount of supersymmetry breaking is independently tunable due to a degeneracy in the choice for the superpotential. The inflaton is a scalar partner of the Goldstino in this set-up. We illustrate our general procedure with two examples that are favoured by the Planck data.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

DOE OSTI2016

Plateau inflation from random non-minimal coupling

A generic non-minimal coupling can push any higher-order terms of the scalar potential sufficiently far out in field space to yield observationally viable plateau inflation. We provide analytic and numerical evidence that this generically happens for a non-minimal coupling strength ξ of the order N{sub e}{sup 2}. In this regime, the non-minimally coupled field is sub-Planckian during inflation and is thus protected from most higher-order terms. For larger values of ξ, the inflationary predictions converge towards the sweet spot of PLANCK. The latter includes ξ≃10{sup 4} obtained from CMB normalization arguments, thus providing a natural explanation for the inflationary observables measured.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

DOE OSTI2015

The Hubble flow of plateau inflation

In the absence of CMB precision measurements, a Taylor expansion has often been invoked to parametrize the Hubble flow function during inflation. The standard ''horizon flow'' procedure implicitly relies on this assumption. However, the recent Planck results indicate a strong preference for plateau inflation, which suggests the use of Padé approximants instead. We propose a novel method that provides analytic solutions of the flow equations for a given parametrization of the Hubble function. This method is illustrated in the Taylor and Padé cases, for low order expansions. We then present the results of a full numerical treatment scanning larger order expansions, and compare these parametrizations in terms of convergence, prior dependence, predictivity and compatibility with the data. Finally, we highlight the implications for potential reconstruction methods.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2015

On the three primordial numbers

Cosmological observations have provided us with the measurement of just three numbers that characterize the very early universe: 1−n{sub s} , N and ln Δ{sub R}{sup 2}. Although each of the three numbers individually carries limited information about the physics of inflation, one may hope to extract non-trivial information from relations among them. Invoking minimality, namely the absence of ad hoc large numbers, we find two viable and mutually exclusive inflationary scenarios. The first is the well-known inverse relation between 1− n{sub s} and N. The second implies a new relation between 1−n{sub s} and ln Δ{sub R}{sup 2}, which might provide us with a handle on the beginning of inflation and predicts the intriguing lower bound on the tensor-to-scalar ratio r > 0.006 (95% CL)

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2015

Inflation by alignment

Pseudo-Goldstone bosons (pGBs) can provide technically natural inflatons, as has been comparatively well-explored in the simplest axion examples. Although inflationary success requires trans-Planckian decay constants, f≳M{sub p}, several mechanisms have been proposed to obtain this, relying on (mis-)alignments between potential and kinetic energies in multiple-field models. We extend these mechanisms to a broader class of inflationary models, including in particular the exponential potentials that arise for pGB potentials based on noncompact groups (and so which might apply to moduli in an extra-dimensional setting). The resulting potentials provide natural large-field inflationary models and can predict a larger primordial tensor signal than is true for simpler single-field versions of these models. In so doing we provide a unified treatment of several alignment mechanisms, showing how each emerges as a limit of the more general setup.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗