English

Inflationary $\alpha$-Attractor Models with Singular Derivative of Potential

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics 2023-07-06 v2 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology High Energy Physics - Phenomenology High Energy Physics - Theory

Abstract

A generalization of inflationary α\alpha-attractor models (``polynomial α\alpha-attractor'') was recently proposed by Kallosh and Linde, in which the potential involves logarithmic functions of the inflaton so that the derivative of the potential but not potential itself has a singularity. We find that the models can lead to viable inflationary observables even without the pole in the kinetic term. Also, the generalization with a pole order other than two does not significantly change the functional form of the potential. This allows a systematic analysis of the predictions of this class of models. Our models predict larger spectral index nsn_s and tensor-to-scalar ratio rr than in the polynomial α\alpha-attractor: typically, nsn_s around 0.97--0.98 and rr observable by LiteBIRD. Taking advantage of the relatively large nsn_s, we discuss the modification of the potential to produce primordial black holes as the whole dark matter and gravitational waves induced by curvature perturbations detectable by LISA and BBO/DECIGO, while keeping nsn_s in agreement with the Planck/BICEP/Keck data.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2302.03955,
  title  = {Inflationary $\alpha$-Attractor Models with Singular Derivative of Potential},
  author = {Kei-ichiro Kubota and Hiroki Matsui and Takahiro Terada},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2302.03955},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

25 pages, 9 figures, 1 table. Published version; references and table added