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At least 487 records · Page 27
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DOE OSTI2014

How well can future CMB missions constrain cosmic inflation?

We study how the next generation of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) measurement missions (such as EPIC, LiteBIRD, PRISM and COrE) will be able to constrain the inflationary landscape in the hardest to disambiguate situation in which inflation is simply described by single-field slow-roll scenarios. Considering the proposed PRISM and LiteBIRD satellite designs, we simulate mock data corresponding to five different fiducial models having values of the tensor-to-scalar ratio ranging from 10{sup -1} down to 10{sup -7}. We then compute the Bayesian evidences and complexities of all Encyclopædia Inflationaris models in order to assess the constraining power of PRISM alone and LiteBIRD complemented with the Planck 2013 data. Within slow-roll inflation, both designs have comparable constraining power and can rule out about three quarters of the inflationary scenarios, compared to one third for Planck 2013 data alone. However, we also show that PRISM can constrain the scalar running and has the capability to detect a violation of slow roll at second order. Finally, our results suggest that describing an inflationary model by its potential shape only, without specifying a reheating temperature, will no longer be possible given the accuracy level reached by the future CMB missions.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Observational implications of mattergenesis during inflation

The observed baryon asymmetry, as well as potentially an asymmetry in the dark matter sector, can be produced through dissipative particle production during inflation. A distinctive feature of this mechanism is the generation of matter isocurvature perturbations that are fully (anti-)correlated with the dominant adiabatic curvature perturbations. We show that chaotic warm inflation models yield anti-correlated isocurvature modes that may partially or even completely screen the contribution of primordial gravity waves to the CMB temperature power spectrum. The tensor-to-scalar ratio inferred from the latter may thus be parametrically smaller than the one deduced from B-mode polarization maps, which is particularly relevant in the light of the recently announced results of the BICEP2 experiment.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Notes on natural inflation

In the so-called natural inflation, an axion-like inflaton is assumed to have a cosine-type periodic potential. This is not the case in a very simple model in which the axion-like inflaton is coupled to an SU(N) (or other) pure Yang–Mills, at least in the large N limit as pointed out by Witten. It has a multi-valued potential, which is effectively quadratic, i.e., there is only a mass term in the large N limit. Thanks to this property, chaotic inflation can be realized more naturally with the decay constant of the axion-like inflaton less than the Planck scale. We demonstrate these points explicitly by using softly broken N=1 Super-Yang-Mills which allows us to treat finite N. This analysis also suggests that moderately large gauge groups such as E{sub 8} are good enough with a Planck scale decay constant.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Asymptotically safe Higgs inflation

We construct a new inflation model in which the standard model Higgs boson couples minimally to gravity and acts as the inflaton. Our construction of Higgs inflation incorporates the standard model with Einstein gravity which exhibits asymptotic safety in the ultraviolet region. The slow roll condition is satisfied at large field value due to the asymptotically safe behavior of Higgs self-coupling at high energies. We find that this minimal construction is highly predictive, and is consistent with both cosmological observations and collider experiments.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Moduli inflation in five-dimensional supergravity models

We propose a simple but effective mechanism to realize an inflationary early universe consistent with the observed WMAP, Planck and/or BICEP2 data, which would be incorporated in various supersymmetric models of elementary particles constructed in the (effective) five-dimensional spacetime. In our scenario, the inflaton field is identified with one of the moduli appearing when the fifth direction is compactified, and a successful cosmological inflation without the so-called η problem can be achieved by a very simple moduli stabilization potential. We also discuss the related particle cosmology during and (just) after the inflation, such as the (no) cosmological moduli problem.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Inflating with large effective fields

We re-examine large scalar fields within effective field theory, in particular focussing on the issues raised by their use in inflationary models (as suggested by BICEP2 to obtain primordial tensor modes). We argue that when the large-field and low-energy regimes coincide the scalar dynamics is most effectively described in terms of an asymptotic large-field expansion whose form can be dictated by approximate symmetries, which also help control the size of quantum corrections. We discuss several possible symmetries that can achieve this, including pseudo-Goldstone inflatons characterized by a coset G/H (based on abelian and non-abelian, compact and non-compact symmetries), as well as symmetries that are intrinsically higher dimensional. Besides the usual trigonometric potentials of Natural Inflation we also find in this way simple large-field power laws (like V ∝ φ{sup 2}) and exponential potentials, V(φ) = ∑{sub k}V{sub x}e{sup −kφ/M}. Both of these can describe the data well and give slow-roll inflation for large fields without the need for a precise balancing of terms in the potential. The exponential potentials achieve large r through the limit |η| || ε and so predict r ≅ (8/3)(1-n{sub s}); consequently n{sub s} ≅ 0.96 gives r ≅ 0.11 but not much larger (and so could be ruled out as measurements on r and n{sub s} improve). We examine the naturalness issues for these models and give simple examples where symmetries protect these forms, using both pseudo-Goldstone inflatons (with non-abelian non-compact shift symmetries following familiar techniques from chiral perturbation theory) and extra-dimensional models.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Studying inflation with future space-based gravitational wave detectors

Motivated by recent progress in our understanding of the B-mode polarization of cosmic microwave background (CMB), which provides important information about the inflationary gravitational waves (IGWs), we study the possibility to acquire information about the early universe using future space-based gravitational wave (GW) detectors. We perform a detailed statistical analysis to estimate how well we can determine the reheating temperature after inflation as well as the amplitude, the tensor spectral index, and the running of the inflationary gravitational waves. We discuss how the accuracies depend on noise parameters of the detector and the minimum frequency available in the analysis. Implication of such a study on the test of inflation models is also discussed.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Theory of non-Gaussianity in warm inflation

The theory and methodology is developed to compute the bispectrum in warm inflation, leading to results for the non-linearity parameter and the shape of the bispectrum. Particular attention is paid to the study of the bispectrum in the regime of weak dissipation and how stochastic fluctuations affect the bispectrum. It is shown that, in contrast to the strong dissipative regime, the amplitude of non-Gaussianity is strongly dependent on the parameters governing the microscopic physics in the intermediate and weak dissipation warm inflation regimes. The most important results concern the shape of the bispectrum, which has two different, but distinct, forms in the weak and strong dissipative regimes.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

B-modes and the nature of inflation

Observations of the cosmic microwave background do not yet determine whether inflation was driven by a slowly-rolling scalar field or involved another physical mechanism. In this paper we discuss the prospects of using the power spectra of scalar and tensor modes to probe the nature of inflation. We focus on the leading modification to the slow-roll dynamics, which entails a sound speed c{sub s} for the scalar fluctuations. We derive analytically a lower bound on c{sub s} in terms of a given tensor-to-scalar ratio r, taking into account the difference in the freeze-out times between the scalar and tensor modes. We find that any detection of primordial B-modes with r > 0.01 implies a lower bound on c{sub s} that is stronger than the bound derived from the absence of non-Gaussianity in the Planck data. For r ∼> 0.1, the bound would be tantalizingly close to a critical value for the sound speed, (c{sub s}){sub *} = 0.47 (corresponding to (f{sub NL}{sup equil}){sub *} = -0.93), which we show serves as a threshold for non-trivial dynamics beyond slow-roll. We also discuss how an order-one level of equilateral non-Gaussianity is a natural observational target for other extensions of the canonical paradigm.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Does the first chaotic inflation model in supergravity provide the best fit to the Planck data?

I describe the first model of chaotic inflation in supergravity, which was proposed by Goncharov and the present author in 1983. The inflaton potential of this model has a plateau-type behavior V{sub 0}(1−(8/3) e{sup −√6|ϕ|}) at large values of the inflaton field. This model predicts n{sub s}=1−(2/N)≈0.967 and r=(4/(3N{sup 2}))≈4×10{sup −4}, in good agreement with the Planck data. I propose a slight generalization of this model, which allows to describe not only inflation but also dark energy and supersymmetry breaking.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Universality classes for models of inflation

We show that the cosmological evolution of a scalar field in a potential can be obtained from a renormalisation group equation. The slow roll regime of inflation models is understood in this context as the slow evolution close to a fixed point, described by the methods of renormalisation group. This explains in part the universality observed in the predictions of a certain number of inflation models. We illustrate this behavior on a certain number of examples and discuss it in the context of the AdS/CFT correspondence.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Reheating predictions in single field inflation

Reheating is a transition era after the end of inflation, during which the inflaton is converted into the particles that populate the Universe at later times. No direct cosmological observables are normally traceable to this period of reheating. Indirect bounds can however be derived. One possibility is to consider cosmological evolution for observable CMB scales from the time of Hubble crossing to the present time. Depending upon the model, the duration and final temperature after reheating, as well as its equation of state, may be directly linked to inflationary observables. For single-field inflationary models, if we approximate reheating by a constant equation of state, one can derive relations between the reheating duration (or final temperature), its equation of state parameter, and the scalar power spectrum amplitude and spectral index. While this is a simple approximation, by restricting the equation of state to lie within a broad physically allowed range, one can in turn bracket an allowed range of n{sub s} and r for these models. The added constraints can help break degeneracies between inflation models that otherwise overlap in their predictions for n{sub s} and r.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Imprint of inflation on galaxy shape correlations

We show that intrinsic (not lensing-induced) correlations between galaxy shapes offer a new probe of primordial non-Gaussianity and inflationary physics which is complementary to galaxy number counts. Specifically, intrinsic alignment correlations are sensitive to an anisotropic squeezed limit bispectrum of the primordial perturbations. Such a feature arises in solid inflation, as well as more broadly in the presence of light higher spin fields during inflation (as pointed out recently by Arkani-Hamed and Maldacena). We present a derivation of the all-sky two-point correlations of intrinsic shapes and number counts in the presence of non-Gaussianity with general angular dependence, and show that a quadrupolar (spin-2) anisotropy leads to the analog in galaxy shapes of the well-known scale-dependent bias induced in number counts by isotropic (spin-0) non-Gaussianity. Moreover, in the presence of non-zero anisotropic non-Gaussianity, the quadrupole of galaxy shapes becomes sensitive to far superhorizon modes. These effects come about because long-wavelength modes induce a local anisotropy in the initial power spectrum, with which galaxies will correlate. We forecast that future imaging surveys could provide constraints on the amplitude of anisotropic non-Gaussianity that are comparable to those from the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). These are complementary as they probe different physical scales. The constraints, however, depend on the sensitivity of galaxy shapes to the initial conditions which we only roughly estimate from observed tidal alignments.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
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

Non-canonical inflation coupled to matter

We compute corrections to the inflationary potential due to conformally coupled non-relativistic matter. We find that under certain conditions of the matter coupling, inflation may be interrupted abruptly. We display this in the superconformal Starobinsky model, where matter is conformally coupled to the Einstein frame metric. These corrections may easily stop inflation provided that there is an initial density of non-relativistic matter. Since these additional heavy degrees of freedom generically occur in higher dimension theories, for example as Kaluza-Klein modes, this effect can arise in multiple scenarios.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Bounce inflation cosmology with Standard Model Higgs boson

It is of great interest to connect cosmology in the early universe to the Standard Model of particle physics. In this paper, we try to construct a bounce inflation model with the standard model Higgs boson, where the one loop correction is taken into account in the effective potential of Higgs field. In this model, a Galileon term has been introduced to eliminate the ghost mode when bounce happens. Moreover, due to the fact that the Fermion loop correction can make part of the Higgs potential negative, one naturally obtains a large equation of state(EoS) parameter in the contracting phase, which can eliminate the anisotropy problem. After the bounce, the model can drive the universe into the standard higgs inflation phase, which can generate nearly scale-invariant power spectrum.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Gauge-preheating and the end of axion inflation

We study the onset of the reheating epoch at the end of axion-driven inflation where the axion is coupled to an Abelian, U(1), gauge field via a Chern-Simons interaction term. We focus primarily on m{sup 2φ2} inflation and explore the possibility that preheating can occur for a range of coupling values consistent with recent observations and bounds on the overproduction of primordial black holes. We find that for a wide range of parameters preheating is efficient. In certain cases the inflaton transfers all of its energy to the gauge fields within a few oscillations. In most cases, we find that the gauge fields on sub-horizon scales end preheating in an unpolarized state due to the existence of strong rescattering between the inflaton and gauge-field modes. We also present a preliminary study of an axion monodromy model coupled to U(1) gauge fields, seeing a similarly efficient preheating behavior as well as indications that the coupling strength has an effect on the creation of oscillons.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2016

Effective Planck mass and the scale of inflation

A recent paper argued that it is not possible to infer the energy scale of inflation from the amplitude of tensor fluctuations in the Cosmic Microwave Background, because the usual connection is substantially altered if there are a large number of universally coupled fields present during inflation, with mass less than the inflationary Hubble scale. We give a simple argument demonstrating that this is incorrect.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗