English

Conformally coupled inflation

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology 2013-09-20 v1

Abstract

A massive scalar field in a curved spacetime can propagate along the light cone, a causal pathology, which can, in principle, be eliminated only if the scalar couples conformally to the Ricci curvature of spacetime. This property mandates conformal coupling for the field driving inflation in the early universe. During slow-roll inflation, this coupling can cause super-acceleration and, as a signature, a blue spectrum of primordial gravitational waves.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1309.4900,
  title  = {Conformally coupled inflation},
  author = {Valerio Faraoni},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1309.4900},
  year   = {2013}
}

Comments

12 pages, no figures, invited paper to appear in "Cosmology with Fluid Components", special issue of "Galaxies" edited by I. Brevik

R2 v1 2026-06-22T01:30:05.294Z