English

On cosmic inflation in vector field theories

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology 2011-12-02 v4 Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics High Energy Physics - Theory

Abstract

We investigate the longitudinal ghost issue in Abelian vector inflation. It turns out that, within the class of Lorentz-invariant vector field theories with three degrees of freedom and without any extra (scalar) fields, the possibilities are essentially exhausted by the classical solution due to Larry Ford with an extremely flat potential which doesn't feel the fast roll of its argument. And, moreover, one needs to fulfil an extra condition on that potential in order to avoid severe gradient instability. At the same time, some Lorentz-violating modifications are worth to be explored.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1109.4838,
  title  = {On cosmic inflation in vector field theories},
  author = {Alexey Golovnev},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1109.4838},
  year   = {2011}
}

Comments

10 pages; a few minor typos corrected; published version

R2 v1 2026-06-21T19:08:52.060Z