Related papers: Negative running prevents eternal inflation
It was pointed out previously~\cite{Kinney:2014jya} that a sufficiently negative running of the spectral index of curvature perturbations from (ordinary i.e. cold) inflation is able to prevent eternal inflation from ever occurring. Here, we…
We consider inflation in a universe with a positive cosmological constant and a nonminimally coupled scalar field, in which the field couples both quadratically and quartically to the Ricci scalar. When considered in the Einstein frame and…
Inflationary cosmology proposes that the early Universe undergoes accelerated expansion, driven, in simple scenarios, by a single scalar field, or inflaton. The form of the inflaton potential determines the initial spectra of density…
We consider the running of the spectral index as a probe of both inflation itself, and of the overall evolution of the very early universe. Surveying a collection of simple single field inflationary models, we confirm that the magnitude of…
If the spatial curvature of the universe is positive, then the curvature term will always dominate at early enough times in a slow-rolling inflationary epoch. This enhances inflationary effects and hence puts limits on the possible number…
We argue that a large negative running spectral index, if confirmed, might suggest that there are abundant structures in the inflaton potential, which result in a fairly large (both positive and negative) running of the spectral index at…
At the beginning of inflation there could be extra dynamical scalar fields that will soon disappear (become static) before the end of inflation. In the light of multi-field inflation, those extra degrees of freedom may alter the…
The spectral index of scalar perturbations is an important observable that allows us to learn about inflationary physics. In particular, a detection of a significant deviation from a constant spectral index could enable us to rule out the…
Inflation creates large-scale cosmological density perturbations that are characterized by an isotropic, homogeneous, and Gaussian random distribution about a locally flat background. Even in a flat universe, the spatial curvature measured…
In a previous paper, two of the authors presented a "regulated" picture of eternal inflation. This picture both suggested and drew support from a conjectured discontinuity in the amplitude for tunneling from positive to negative vacuum…
In single field slow-roll inflation, one expects that the spectral index $n_s -1$ is first order in slow-roll parameters. Similarly, its running $\alpha_s = dn_s/d \log k$ and the running of the running $\beta_s = d\alpha_s/d \log k$ are…
We analyze the weak (2 sigma) evidence for a running spectral index seen in the three-year WMAP dataset and its implications for single field, slow roll inflation. We assume that the running is comparable to the central value found from the…
The Wheeler-DeWitt equation provides the probability distribution for the curvature perturbation, the gauge invariant quantum fluctuation of the inflaton. From this, we can find a tower of power spectra which is not found in a perturbative…
In light of the most recent cosmological observations, we provide new updated constraints on the slow-roll inflation in different extended scenarios beyond the $\Lambda\rm{CDM}$ cosmological model. Along with the usual six parameters, we…
Bayesian model comparison penalizes models with more free parameters that are allowed to vary over a wide range, and thus offers the most robust method to decide whether some given data require new parameters. In this paper, we ask a simple…
In this work we address the possibility of having a positive running of the spectral index in inflationary theories. The recent ACT data indicate mildly that the running of the spectral index might be positive, and several other physical…
We use the recent observations of Cosmic Microwave Background temperature and polarization anisotropies provided by the Planck satellite experiment to place constraints on the running $\alpha_\mathrm{s} = \mathrm{d}n_{\mathrm{s}} /…
An outgrowth of the idea of inflation is advanced. In the inflation regime, the singularity condition is broken. Equations which govern inflation are invariant under time reversal, so that they describe deflation as well. Those two…
During inflation, there is a preferred reference frame in which the expansion of the background spacetime is spatially isotropic. In contrast to Minkowski spacetime, observables can depend on the velocity of the system with respect to this…
We examine the choice of scale at which constraints on inflationary observables are presented. We describe an implementation of the hierarchy of inflationary consistency equations which ensures that they remain enforced on different scales,…