English

Inflation from a Weyl-flat null origin

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology 2026-04-22 v1 Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology

Abstract

We show that a Weyl-flat null origin of inflation need not be in tension with present observations. For canonical single-field inflation, any background with ϵ(N)ϵ(0,1)\epsilon(N)\to \epsilon_\infty\in(0,1) as NN\to\infty is asymptotically power-law, inherits the same Weyl-flat null past boundary, and reconstructs an exponential tail in field space. This identifies the origin as an asymptotic universality class rather than a rigid exact solution. We study a minimal deformation, ϵ(N)=ϵ+(1ϵ)(N0N+N0)p\epsilon(N)=\epsilon_\infty+(1-\epsilon_\infty)\left(\frac{N_0}{N+N_0}\right)^p with p>1p>1, which preserves the asymptotic geometry, yields a smooth exit, and produces realistic finite-NN phenomenology. Solving the scalar and tensor mode equations directly in e-fold time, we find a viable corridor with nsn_s in the Planck-preferred range and r103102r\sim10^{-3}-10^{-2}, including reheating-compatible benchmarks. The result is a calculable single-field framework in which a Penrose-compatible Weyl-flat inflationary origin survives as a realistic and testable possibility.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2604.18641,
  title  = {Inflation from a Weyl-flat null origin},
  author = {Malaika Arshad and Jehanzad Zafar and Ahdab Althukair and Bilal Ahmad},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2604.18641},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

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R2 v1 2026-07-01T12:18:57.720Z