Related papers: Inflation on a Slippery Slope
We study inflation in models with many interacting fields subject to randomly generated scalar potentials. We use methods from non-equilibrium random matrix theory to construct the potentials and an adaption of the 'transport method' to…
In inflationary scenarios with more than one scalar field, inflation may proceed even if each of the individual fields has a potential too steep for that field to sustain inflation on its own. We show that scalar fields with exponential…
We study multifield contributions to the scalar power spectrum in an ensemble of six-field inflationary models obtained in string theory. We identify examples in which inflation occurs by chance, near an approximate inflection point, and we…
We construct a class of random potentials for N >> 1 scalar fields using non-equilibrium random matrix theory, and then characterize multifield inflation in this setting. By stipulating that the Hessian matrices in adjacent coordinate…
We examine a wide class of multi-field inflationary models based on fields that decay or stabilize during inflation in a staggered fashion. The fields driving assisted inflation are on flat, short stretches, before they encounter a sharp…
The calculation of scalar gravitational and matter perturbations during multiple-field inflation valid to first order in slow roll is discussed. These fields may be the coordinates of a non-trivial field manifold and hence have non-minimal…
Motivated by the possibility of inflation in the cosmic landscape, which may be approximated by a complicated potential, we study the density perturbations in multi-field inflation with a random potential. The random potential causes the…
There are hidden observables for inflation, such as features localized in position space, which do not manifest themselves when only one inflation trajectory is considered. To address this issue, we investigate inflation dynamics in a…
We construct models of inflation with many randomly interacting fields and use these to study the generation of cosmological observables. We model the potentials as multi-dimensional Gaussian random fields (GRFs) and identify powerful…
A unified approach to quintessence and inflation is investigated with the use of a single scalar field. It is argued that successful potentials have to approximate a combination of exponential and inverse power-law decline in the limit of…
We calculate the scalar gravitational and matter perturbations in the context of slow-roll inflation with multiple scalar fields, that take values on a (curved) manifold, to first order in slow roll. For that purpose a basis for these…
We study multi-field inflation in random potentials generated via a non-equilibrium random matrix theory process. We make a novel modification of the process to include correlations between the elements of the Hessian and the height of the…
We examine the dynamics of inflation driven by multiple, interacting scalar fields and derive a multi field version of the Hubble slow roll expansion. We show that the properties of this expansion naturally generalize those of the single…
The viability of a given model for inflation is determined not only by the form of the inflaton potential, but also by the initial inflaton field configuration. In many models, field configurations which are otherwise well-motivated…
We explore the inflationary phase of a scalar field with a kinetic term non-minimally coupled to gravity. We find that one of the slow-roll conditions is naturally consequence of the equation of motion of the scalar field. Thus, slow-roll…
Based on random matrix theory, we compute the likelihood of saddles and minima in a class of random potentials that are softly bounded from above and below, as required for the validity of low energy effective theories. Imposing this bound…
The evolution of two slow--rolling scalar fields with potentials of the form $V=V_0 \phi^{-\alpha}\exp(-\beta \phi^m)$ is studied. Considering different values of the parameters $\alpha$, $\beta$ and $m$, we derive several new inflationary…
We study the possibility that inflation is driven by a scalar field together with a vector field minimally coupled to gravity. By assuming an effective potential that incorporates both fields into the action, we explore two distinct…
A perturbative strategy for inflation described by two-inflaton fields is developed using a mathematical analogy with the renormalization-group. Two small quantities, $\alpha$ and $\lambda$, corresponding to standard slow-roll parameters…
We present two families of multi-field potentials that support inflation while satisfying the refined de Sitter and the distance swampland conjectures. Both families feature Planck-compatible phenomenology. The first is a helix-type…