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At least 1,135 records · Page 63
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DOE OSTI2014

Inflation in a two 3-form fields scenario

A setting constituted by N 3-form fields, without any direct interaction between them, minimally coupled to gravity, is introduced in this paper as a framework to study the early evolution of the universe. We focus particularly on the two 3-forms case. An inflationary scenario is found, emerging from the coupling to gravity. More concretely, the fields coupled in this manner exhibit a complex interaction, mediated by the time derivative of the Hubble parameter. Our investigation is supported by means of a suitable choice of potentials, employing numerical methods and analytical approximations. In more detail, the oscillations on the small field limit become correlated, and one field is intertwined with the other. In this type of solution, a varying sound speed is present, together with the generation of isocurvature perturbations. The mentioned features allow to consider an interesting model, to test against observation. It is subsequently shown how our results are consistent with current CMB data (viz.Planck and BICEP2)

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2014

Combining universal and odd RR axions for aligned natural inflation

We successfully embed the Kim-Nilles-Peloso (KNP) alignment mechanism for enhancing the axion decay constant in the context of large volume type IIB orientifolds. The flat direction is generated in the plane of (C{sub 0}-C{sub 2}) axions corresponding to the involutively even universal axion C{sub 0} and odd axion C{sub 2}, respectively. The moduli stabilization with large volume scheme has been established as well.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Parity-violating and anisotropic correlations in pseudoscalar inflation

A pseudo-scalar inflaton field can have interesting phenomenological signatures associated with parity violation. The existing analyses of these signatures typically assume statistical isotropy. In the present work we instead investigate the possibility that a pseudo-scalar inflaton is coupled to a vector field carrying a small but non-negligible vacuum expectation value (vev) coherent over our Hubble patch. We show that, in such case, correlators involving the primordial curvature perturbations and gravitational waves violate both statistical isotropy and parity symmetry. We compute the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) temperature anisotropies (T) and polarization (E/B) generated by these primordial modes. The CMB two-point correlation functions present distinct signals of broken rotational and parity invariance. Specifically, we find non-vanishing TT, TE, EE and BB correlators between ℓ{sub 1} and ℓ{sub 2} = ℓ{sub 1} ± 1 multipoles, and non-vanishing TB and EB correlators between ℓ{sub 1} and ℓ{sub 2} = ℓ{sub 1} ± 2 multipoles. Such signatures are specific of the models under consideration and they cannot be generated if one of parity and isotropy is preserved. As a specific example we consider the simple case in which the vector field has just an ''electric'' background component decaying in the standard way as a{sup −2}. In this case a strong scale-dependent quadrupolar modulation of the primordial power spectra is generated and we find that almost noiseless data of the large-scale temperature and E-mode polarization anisotropies (like, e.g., the ones provided by WMAP or Planck) should be able to constrain the quadrupolar amplitude coefficients g{sub 2M} of the primordial scalar power spectrum (normalized at the pivot scale comparable to the present horizon size k{sup −1}{sub 0} = 14 Gpc) down to g{sub 2M} = 30 (68%CL)

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Constraining Galileon inflation

In this short paper, we present constraints on the Galileon inflationary model from the CMB bispectrum. We employ a principal-component analysis of the independent degrees of freedom constrained by data and apply this to the WMAP 9-year data to constrain the free parameters of the model. A simple Bayesian comparison establishes that support for the Galileon model from bispectrum data is at best weak.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Higher derivatives and power spectrum in effective single field inflation

We study next-to-leading corrections to the effective action of the curvature perturbation obtained by integrating out the coupled heavy isocurvature perturbation. These corrections result from including higher order derivative operators, weighted by the mass scale of the heavy physics, in the effective theory expansion. We find that the correction terms are suppressed by the ratio of the Hubble parameter to the heavy mass scale. The corresponding corrections to the power spectrum of the curvature perturbation are presented for a simple illustrative example.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Spinodal backreaction during inflation and initial conditions

We investigate how long wavelength inflationary fluctuations can cause the background field to deviate from classical dynamics. For generic potentials, we show that, in the Hartree approximation, the long wavelength dynamics can be encapsulated by a two-field model operating in an effective potential. The latter is given by a simple Gaussian integral transformation of the original inflationary potential. We use this new expression to study backreaction effects in quadratic, hilltop, flattened, and axion monodromy potentials. We find that the net result of the altered dynamics is to slightly modify the spectral tilt, drastically decrease the tensor-to-scalar ratio, and to effectively smooth over any features of the potential, with the size of these deviations set by the initial value of power in large scale modes and the shape of the potential during the entire evolution.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

Inflation with massive vector fields

We investigate the coupling between the inflaton and massive vector fields. All renormalizable couplings with shift symmetry of the inflaton are considered. The massive vector can be decomposed into a scalar mode and a divergence-free vector mode. We show that the former naturally interacts with the inflaton and the latter decouples at tree level. The model in general predicts f{sub NL}equil = O(1), while in some regions of the parameter space large non-Gaussianity can arise.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Computing observables in curved multifield models of inflation—A guide (with code) to the transport method

We describe how to apply the transport method to compute inflationary observables in a broad range of multiple-field models. The method is efficient and encompasses scenarios with curved field-space metrics, violations of slow-roll conditions and turns of the trajectory in field space. It can be used for an arbitrary mass spectrum, including massive modes and models with quasi-single-field dynamics. In this note we focus on practical issues. It is accompanied by a Mathematica code which can be used to explore suitable models, or as a basis for further development.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2016

The cosmological Slavnov-Taylor identity from BRST symmetry in single-field inflation

The cosmological Slavnov-Taylor (ST) identity of the Einstein-Hilbert action coupled to a single inflaton field is obtained from the Becchi-Rouet-Stora-Tyutin (BRST) symmetry associated with diffeomorphism invariance in the Arnowitt-Deser-Misner (ADM) formalism. The consistency conditions between the correlators of the scalar and tensor modes in the squeezed limit are then derived from the ST identity, together with the softly broken conformal symmetry. Maldacena's original relations connecting the 2- and 3-point correlators at horizon crossing are recovered, as well as the next-to-leading corrections, controlled by the special conformal transformations.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2016

Robust Inflation from fibrous strings

Successful inflationary models should (i) describe the data well; (ii) arise generically from sensible UV completions; (iii) be insensitive to detailed fine-tunings of parameters and (iv) make interesting new predictions. We argue that a class of models with these properties is characterized by relatively simple potentials with a constant term and negative exponentials. We here continue earlier work exploring UV completions for these models — including the key (though often ignored) issue of modulus stabilisation — to assess the robustness of their predictions. We show that string models where the inflaton is a fibration modulus seem to be robust due to an effective rescaling symmetry, and fairly generic since most known Calabi-Yau manifolds are fibrations. This class of models is characterized by a generic relation between the tensor-to-scalar ratio r and the spectral index n{sub s} of the form r∝(n{sub s}−1){sup 2} where the proportionality constant depends on the nature of the effects used to develop the inflationary potential and the topology of the internal space. In particular we find that the largest values of the tensor-to-scalar ratio that can be obtained by generalizing the original set-up are of order r≲0.01. We contrast this general picture with specific popular models, such as the Starobinsky scenario and α-attractors. Finally, we argue the self consistency of large-field inflationary models can strongly constrain non-supersymmetric inflationary mechanisms.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2016

Multiple fields in stochastic inflation

Stochastic effects in multi-field inflationary scenarios are investigated. A hierarchy of diffusion equations is derived, the solutions of which yield moments of the numbers of inflationary e-folds. Solving the resulting partial differential equations in multi-dimensional field space is more challenging than the single-field case. A few tractable examples are discussed, which show that the number of fields is, in general, a critical parameter. When more than two fields are present for instance, the probability to explore arbitrarily large-field regions of the potential, otherwise inaccessible to single-field dynamics, becomes non-zero. In some configurations, this gives rise to an infinite mean number of e-folds, regardless of the initial conditions. Another difference with respect to single-field scenarios is that multi-field stochastic effects can be large even at sub-Planckian energy. This opens interesting new possibilities for probing quantum effects in inflationary dynamics, since the moments of the numbers of e-folds can be used to calculate the distribution of primordial density perturbations in the stochastic-δN formalism.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2016

On inflation, cosmological constant, and SUSY breaking

We consider a broad class of inflationary models of two unconstrained chiral superfields, the stabilizer S and the inflaton Φ, which can describe inflationary models with nearly arbitrary potentials. These models include, in particular, the recently introduced theories of cosmological attractors, which provide an excellent fit to the latest Planck data. We show that by adding to the superpotential of the fields S and Φ a small term depending on a nilpotent chiral superfield P one can break SUSY and introduce a small cosmological constant without affecting main predictions of the original inflationary scenario.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2020

Using SPT polarization, Planck 2015, and non-CMB data to constrain tilted spatially-flat and untilted nonflat ΛCDM, XCDM, and ΦCDM dark energy inflation cosmologies

We use six tilted spatially-flat and untilted non-flat dark energy cosmological models in analyses of South Pole Telescope polarization (SPTpol) cosmic microwave background (CMB) data, alone and in combination with Planck 2015 CMB data and non-CMB data, namely, the Pantheon Type Ia supernovae apparent magnitudes, a collection of baryon acoustic oscillation data points, Hubble parameter measurements, and growth rates. Although the cosmological models that best-fit the Planck CMB and non-CMB data do not provide good fits to the SPTpol data, with the χ2's exceeding the expected value, given the uncertainties, in each model the cosmological parameter constraints from the SPTpol data and from the Planck CMB and non-CMB data are largely mutually consistent. Furthermore, when the smaller angular scale SPTpol data are used jointly with either the Planck data alone or with the Planck CMB and the non-CMB data to constrain untilted non-flat models, spatially-closed models remain favored over their corresponding flat limits. When used in conjunction with Planck data, non-CMB data (baryon acoustic oscillation measurements in particular, from six experiments) have significantly more constraining power than the SPTpol data.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗