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DOE OSTI2017

Stable solutions of inflation driven by vector fields

Many models of inflation driven by vector fields alone have been known to be plagued by pathological behaviors, namely ghost and/or gradient instabilities. In this work, we seek a new class of vector-driven inflationary models that evade all of the mentioned instabilities. We build our analysis on the Generalized Proca Theory with an extension to three vector fields to realize isotropic expansion. We obtain the conditions required for quasi de-Sitter solutions to be an attractor analogous to the standard slow-roll one and those for their stability at the level of linearized perturbations. Identifying the remedy to the existing unstable models, we provide a simple example and explicitly show its stability. This significantly broadens our knowledge on vector inflationary scenarios, reviving potential phenomenological interests for this class of models.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Universality in generalized models of inflation

We discuss the cosmological evolution of a scalar field with non standard kinetic term in terms of a Renormalization Group Equation (RGE). In this framework inflation corresponds to the slow evolution in a neighborhood of a fixed point and universality classes for inflationary models naturally arise. Using some examples we show the application of the formalism. The predicted values for the speed of sound c {sub s} {sup 2} and for the amount of non-Gaussianities produced in these models are discussed. In particular, we show that it is possible to introduce models with c {sub s} {sup 2} ≠ 1 that can be in agreement with present cosmological observations.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Tensor perturbations during inflation in a spatially closed Universe

In a recent paper [1], we studied the evolution of the background geometry and scalar perturbations in an inflationary, spatially closed Friedmann-Lemaȋtre-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) model having constant positive spatial curvature and spatial topology S{sup 3}. Due to the spatial curvature, the early phase of slow-roll inflation is modified, leading to suppression of power in the scalar power spectrum at large angular scales. In this paper, we extend the analysis to include tensor perturbations. We find that, similarly to the scalar perturbations, the tensor power spectrum also shows suppression for long wavelength modes. The correction to the tensor spectrum is limited to the very long wavelength modes, therefore the resulting observable CMB B-mode polarization spectrum remains practically the same as in the standard scenario with flat spatial sections. However, since both the tensor and scalar power spectra are modified, there are scale dependent corrections to the tensor-to-scalar ratio that leads to violation of the standard slow-roll consistency relation.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Two-point correlators revisited: fast and slow scales in multifield models of inflation

We study the structure of two-point correlators of the inflationary field fluctuations in order to improve the accuracy and efficiency of the existing methods to calculate primordial spectra. We present a description motivated by the separation of the fast and slow evolving components of the spectrum which is based on Cholesky decomposition of the field correlator matrix. Our purpose is to rewrite all the relevant equations of motion in terms of slowly varying quantities. This is important in order to consider the contribution from high-frequency modes to the spectrum without affecting computational performance. The slow-roll approximation is not required to reproduce the main distinctive features in the power spectrum for each specific model of inflation.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Inflation in non-minimal matter-curvature coupling theories

We study inflationary scenarios driven by a scalar field in the presence of a non-minimal coupling between matter and curvature. We show that the Friedmann equation can be significantly modified when the energy density during inflation exceeds a critical value determined by the non-minimal coupling, which in turn may considerably modify the spectrum of primordial perturbations and the inflationary dynamics. In particular, we show that these models are characterised by a consistency relation between the tensor-to-scalar ratio and the tensor spectral index that can differ significantly from the predictions of general relativity. We also give examples of observational predictions for some of the most commonly considered potentials and use the results of the Planck collaboration to set limits on the scale of the non-minimal coupling.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Quintessential inflation with α-attractors

A novel approach to quintessential inflation model building is studied, within the framework of α-attractors, motivated by supergravity theories. Inflationary observables are in excellent agreement with the latest CMB observations, while quintessence explains the dark energy observations without any fine-tuning. The model is kept intentionally minimal, avoiding the introduction of many degrees of freedom, couplings and mass scales. In stark contrast to ΛCDM, for natural values of the parameters, the model attains transient accelerated expansion, which avoids the future horizon problem, while it maintains the field displacement mildly sub-Planckian such that the flatness of the quintessential tail is not lifted by radiative corrections and violations of the equivalence principle (fifth force) are under control. In particular, the required value of the cosmological constant is near the eletroweak scale. Attention is paid to the reheating of the Universe, which avoids gravitino overproduction and respects nucleosynthesis constraints. Kination is treated in a model independent way. A spike in gravitational waves, due to kination, is found not to disturb nucleosynthesis as well.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Nonperturbative production of massless scalars during inflation and generation of gravitational waves

We discuss the possibility of a feature in the spectrum of inflationary gravitational waves sourced by a scalar field χ whose vacuum fluctuations are amplified by a rapidly time dependent mass. Unlike previous work which has focused on the case in which the mass of the field χ vanishes only for an instant before becoming massive again, we study a system where the scalar field becomes and remains massless through the end of inflation. After applying appropriate constraints to our parameters, we find, for future CMB experiments, a small contribution to the tensor-to-scalar ratio which can be at most of the order r ∼ 10{sup −5}. At smaller scales probed by gravitational interferometers, on the other hand, the energy density in the gravitational waves produced this way might be above the projected sensitivity of LISA, Ω{sub GW} h {sup 2} ∼ 10{sup −13}, in a narrow region of parameter space. If there is more than one χ species, then these amplitudes are enhanced by a factor equal to the number of those species.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Thermalized axion inflation

We analyze the dynamics of inflationary models with a coupling of the inflaton φ to gauge fields of the form φ F F-tilde / f , as in the case of axions. It is known that this leads to an instability, with exponential amplification of gauge fields, controlled by the parameter ξ= φ-dot /(2 fH ), which can strongly affect the generation of cosmological perturbations and even the background. We show that scattering rates involving gauge fields can become larger than the expansion rate H , due to the very large occupation numbers, and create a thermal bath of particles of temperature T during inflation. In the thermal regime, energy is transferred to smaller scales, radically modifying the predictions of this scenario. We thus argue that previous constraints on ξ are alleviated. If the gauge fields have Standard Model interactions, which naturally provides reheating, they thermalize already at ξ∼>2.9, before perturbativity constraints and also before backreaction takes place. In absence of SM interactions (i.e. for a dark photon), we find that gauge fields and inflaton perturbations thermalize if ξ∼>3.4; however, observations require ξ∼>6, which is above the perturbativity and backreaction bounds and so a dedicated study is required. After thermalization, though, the system should evolve non-trivially due to the competition between the instability and the gauge field thermal mass. If the thermal mass and the instabilities equilibrate, we expect an equilibrium temperature of T {sub eq} ≅ ξ H / g-bar where g-bar is the effective gauge coupling. Finally, we estimate the spectrum of perturbations if φ is thermal and find that the tensor to scalar ratio is suppressed by H /(2 T ), if tensors do not thermalize.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Simplifying the EFT of Inflation: generalized disformal transformations and redundant couplings

We study generalized disformal transformations, including derivatives of the metric, in the context of the Effective Field Theory of Inflation. All these transformations do not change the late-time cosmological observables but change the coefficients of the operators in the action: some couplings are effectively redundant. At leading order in derivatives and up to cubic order in perturbations, one has 6 free functions that can be used to set to zero 6 of the 17 operators at this order. This is used to show that the tensor three-point function cannot be modified at leading order in derivatives, while the scalar-tensor-tensor correlator can only be modified by changing the scalar dynamics. At higher order in derivatives there are transformations that do not affect the Einstein-Hilbert action: one can find 6 additional transformations that can be used to simplify the inflaton action, at least when the dynamics is dominated by the lowest derivative terms. We also identify the leading higher-derivative corrections to the tensor power spectrum and bispectrum.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Quantum diffusion during inflation and primordial black holes

We calculate the full probability density function (PDF) of inflationary curvature perturbations, even in the presence of large quantum backreaction. Making use of the stochastic-δ N formalism, two complementary methods are developed, one based on solving an ordinary differential equation for the characteristic function of the PDF, and the other based on solving a heat equation for the PDF directly. In the classical limit where quantum diffusion is small, we develop an expansion scheme that not only recovers the standard Gaussian PDF at leading order, but also allows us to calculate the first non-Gaussian corrections to the usual result. In the opposite limit where quantum diffusion is large, we find that the PDF is given by an elliptic theta function, which is fully characterised by the ratio between the squared width and height (in Planck mass units) of the region where stochastic effects dominate. We then apply these results to the calculation of the mass fraction of primordial black holes from inflation, and show that no more than ∼ 1 e -fold can be spent in regions of the potential dominated by quantum diffusion. We explain how this requirement constrains inflationary potentials with two examples.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2019

Gravitational waves from fermion production during axion inflation

We present analytic results for the gravitational wave power spectrum induced in models where the inflaton is coupled to a fermionic pseudocurrent. We show that although such a coupling creates helically polarized fermions, the polarized component of the resulting gravitational waves is parametrically suppressed with respect to the non-polarized one. We also show that the amplitude of the gravitational wave signal associated to this production cannot exceed that generated by the standard mechanism of amplification of vacuum fluctuations. We previously found that this model allows for a regime in which the backreaction of the produced fermions allows for slow-roll inflation even for a steep inflaton potential, and still leads to Gaussian primordial scalar perturbations. The present analysis shows that this regime also results in a gravitational wave signal compatible with the current bounds.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Superstring-inspired particle cosmology: inflation, neutrino masses, leptogenesis, dark matter & the SUSY scale

We develop a string-inspired model for particle cosmology, based on a flipped SU(5)×U(1) gauge group formulated in a no-scale supergravity framework. The model realizes Starobinsky-like inflation, which we assume to be followed by strong reheating, with the GUT symmetry being broken subsequently by a light ‘flaton’ field whose decay generates a second stage of reheating. We discuss the production of gravitinos and the non-thermal contribution made by their decays to the density of cold dark matter, which is assumed to be provided by the lightest neutralino. We also discuss the masses of light and heavy neutrinos and leptogenesis. As discussed previously, a key rôle is played by a superpotential coupling between the inflaton, matter and GUT Higgs fields, called λ 6 . We scan over possible values of λ 6 , exploring the correlations between the possible values of observables. We emphasize that the release of entropy during the GUT transition allows large regions of supersymmetry-breaking parameter space that would otherwise lead to severe overdensity of dark matter. Furthermore, we find that the Big Bang nucleosynthesis lower limit on the reheating temperature of ~ 1 MeV restricts the supersymmetry-breaking scale to a range O(10) TeV that is consistent with the absence of supersymmetric particles at the LHC.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Curvature perturbations from stochastic particle production during inflation

We calculate the curvature power spectrum sourced by spectator fields that are excited repeatedly and non-adiabatically during inflation. In the absence of detailed information of the nature of spectator field interactions, we consider an ensemble of models with intervals between the repeated interactions and interaction strengths drawn from simple probabilistic distributions. We show that the curvature power spectra of each member of the ensemble shows rich structure with many features, and there is a large variability between different realizations of the same ensemble. Such features can be probed by the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and large scale structure observations. They can also have implications for primordial black hole formation and CMB spectral distortions. The geometric random walk behavior of the spectator field allows us to calculate the ensembleaveraged power spectrum of curvature perturbations semi-analytically. For sufficiently large stochastic sourcing, the ensemble averaged power spectrum shows a scale dependence arising from the time spent by modes outside the horizon during the period of particle production, in spite of there being no preferred scale in the underlying model. We find that the magnitude of the ensemble-averaged power spectrum overestimates the typical power spectra in the ensemble because the ensemble distribution of the power spectra is highly non-Gaussian with fat tails.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Dynamical inflection point inflation

Abstract We provide a mechanism to obtain multiple inflection points for the inflaton potential based on the Coleman-Weinberg potential. The key ingredient is the existence of zeros of the inflaton quartic coupling beta function, which can be simply realized by a sign change of a gauge coupling beta function at a massive threshold scale in gauge-Yukawa models. A universal inflaton potential emerges for a wide range of models and can accommodate the observational data in the small-field inflation scenario. While the ratio of tensor over scalar amplitudes is predicted to be small, the running of the scalar spectral index, α s , has branches with both positive and negative values. The positive branch with α s ≳ 0.002 will be tested by the coming cosmic microwave background observations.

Astronomy & Astrophysics↗
DOE OSTI2021

Scalar-tensor mixing from icosahedral inflation

Abstract We study the mixed scalar-tensor two-point function in icosahedral inflation. Within the regime of validity of the effective field theory, this has to be perturbatively small; in particular, much smaller than the scalar spectrum. However, it can be much bigger that the tensor spectrum itself. We discuss observational implications for the CMB temperature-polarization spectrum.

Astronomy & Astrophysics↗
DOE OSTI2022

Early-time measure in eternal inflation

In a situation like eternal inflation, where our data is replicated at infinitely-many other space-time events, it is necessary to make a prior assumption about our location to extract predictions. The principle of mediocrity entails that we live at asymptotic late times, when the occupational probabilities of vacua has settled to a near-equilibrium distribution. In this paper we further develop the idea that we instead exist during the approach to equilibrium, much earlier than the exponentially-long mixing time. In this case we are most likely to reside in vacua that are easily accessed dynamically. Using first-passage statistics, we prove that vacua that maximize their space-time volume at early times have: 1. maximal ever-hitting probability; 2. minimal mean first-passage time; and 3. minimal decay rate. These requirements are succinctly captured by an early-time measure. The idea that we live at early times is a predictive guiding principle, with many phenomenological implications. First, our vacuum should lie deep in a funneled region, akin to folding energy landscapes of proteins. Second, optimal landscape regions are characterized by relatively short-lived vacua, with lifetime of order the de Sitter Page time. For our vacuum, this lifetime is ~ 10 130 years, which is consistent with the Standard Model estimate due to Higgs metastability. Third, the measure favors vacua with small, positive vacuum energy. This can address the cosmological constant problem, provided there are sufficiently many vacua in the entire ensemble of funnels. As a concrete example, we study the Bousso-Polchinski lattice of flux vacua, and find that the early-time measure favors lattices with the fewest number of flux dimensions. This favors compactifications with a large hierarchy between the lightest modulus and all other Kähler and complex structure moduli.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Supermassive primordial black holes from inflation

There is controversy surrounding the origin and evolution of our universe's largest supermassive black holes (SMBHs). In this study, we consider the possibility that some of these black holes formed from the direct collapse of primordial density perturbations. Since the mass of a primordial black hole is limited by the size of the cosmological horizon at the time of collapse, these SMBHs must form rather late, and are naively in conflict with constraints from CMB spectral distortions. These limits can be avoided, however, if the distribution of primordial curvature perturbations is highly non-Gaussian. After quantifying the departure from Gaussianity needed to evade these bounds, we explore a model of multi-field inflation — a non-minimal, self-interacting curvaton model — which has all the necessary ingredients to yield such dramatic non-Gaussianities. We leave the detailed model building and numerics to a future study, however, as our goal is to highlight the challenges associated with forming SMBHs from direct collapse and to identify features that a successful model would need to have. This study is particularly timely in light of recent observations of high-redshift massive galaxy candidates by the James Webb Space Telescope as well as evidence from the NANOGrav experiment for a stochastic gravitational wave background consistent with SMBH mergers.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Light fields during inflation from BOSS and future galaxy surveys

Abstract Primordial non-Gaussianity generated by additional fields present during inflation offers a compelling observational target for galaxy surveys. These fields are of significant theoretical interest since they offer a window into particle physics in the inflaton sector. They also violate the single-field consistency conditions and induce a scale-dependent bias in the galaxy power spectrum. In this paper, we explore this particular signal for light scalar fields and study the prospects for measuring it with galaxy surveys. We find that the sensitivities of current and future surveys are remarkably stable for different configurations, including between spectroscopic and photometric redshift measurements. This is even the case at non-zero masses where the signal is not obviously localized on large scales. For realistic galaxy number densities, we demonstrate that the redshift range and galaxy bias of the sample have the largest impact on the sensitivity in the power spectrum. These results additionally motivated us to explore the potentially enhanced sensitivity of Vera Rubin Observatory's LSST through multi-tracer analyses. Finally, we apply this understanding to current data from the last data release of the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS DR12) and place new constraints on light fields coupled to the inflaton.

Astronomy & Astrophysics↗