English

Polynomial $\alpha$-attractors

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics 2022-04-20 v2 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology High Energy Physics - Phenomenology High Energy Physics - Theory

Abstract

Inflationary α\alpha-attractor models can be naturally implemented in supergravity with hyperbolic geometry. They have stable predictions for observables, such as ns=12/Nen_s=1-{2/ N_e} , assuming that the potential in terms of the original geometric variables, as well as its derivatives, are not singular at the boundary of the hyperbolic disk, or half-plane. In these models, the potential in the canonically normalized inflaton field φ\varphi has a plateau, which is approached exponentially fast at large φ\varphi. We call them exponential α\alpha-attractors. We present a closely related class of models, where the potential is not singular, but its derivative is singular at the boundary. The resulting inflaton potential is also a plateau potential, but it approaches the plateau polynomially. We call them polynomial α\alpha-attractors. Predictions of these two families of attractors completely cover the sweet spot of the Planck/BICEP/Keck data. The exponential ones are on the left, the polynomial are on the right.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2202.06492,
  title  = {Polynomial $\alpha$-attractors},
  author = {Renata Kallosh and Andrei Linde},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2202.06492},
  year   = {2022}
}

Comments

12 pages, 3 figures, references added

R2 v1 2026-06-24T09:34:34.933Z