Geometrical Destabilization of Inflation
- 27 September 2016
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Physical Society (APS) in Physical Review Letters
- Vol. 117 (14), 141301
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.117.141301
Abstract
We show the existence of a general mechanism by which heavy scalar fields can be destabilized during inflation, relying on the fact that the curvature of the field space manifold can dominate the stabilizing force from the potential and destabilize inflationary trajectories. We describe a simple and rather universal setup in which higher-order operators suppressed by a large energy scale trigger this instability. This phenomenon can prematurely end inflation, thereby leading to important observational consequences and sometimes excluding models that would otherwise perfectly fit the data. More generally, it modifies the interpretation of cosmological constraints in terms of fundamental physics. We also explain how the geometrical destabilization can lead to powerful selection criteria on the field space curvature of inflationary models.Keywords
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Funding Information
- Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR-11-IDEX-0004-02)
- Narodowe Centrum Nauki (2014/14/E/ST9/00152)
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