We look at the question posed by Parker et al. about the effect of UV regularisation on the power spectrum for inflation. Focusing on the slow-roll $k$-inflation, we show that up to second order in the Hubble and sound flow parameters, the adiabatic regularisation of such model leads to no difference in the power spectrum apart from certain cases that violate near scale invariant power spectra. Furthermore, extending to non-minimal $k$-inflation, we establish the equivalence of the subtraction terms in the adiabatic regularisation of the power spectrum in Jordan and Einstein frames.
We investigate the effect of adiabatic regularization on both the tensor- and scalar-perturbation power spectra in \textit{nonminimally} coupled chaotic inflation. Similar to that of the \textit{minimally} coupled general single-field inflation, we find that the subtraction term is suppressed by an exponentially decaying factor involving the number of $ e $-folds. By following the subtraction term long enough beyond horizon crossing, the regularized power spectrum tends to the "bare" power spectrum. This study justifies the use of the unregularized ("bare") power spectrum in standard calculati…
Using spectral regularisation, we compute the Weyl anomaly and express the anomaly generating functional of the quantum effective action through a collective scalar degree of freedom of all quantum vacuum fluctuations. Such a formulation allows us to describe induced gravity on an equal footing with the anomaly-induced effective action, in a self-consistent way. We then show that requiring stability of the cosmological constant under loop quantum corrections, Sakharov's induced gravity and Starobinsky's anomaly-induced inflation are either both present or both absent, depending on the particle…
Isocurvature perturbations naturally occur in models of inflation consisting of more than one scalar field. In this paper we calculate the spectrum of isocurvature perturbations generated at the end of inflation for three different inflationary models consisting of two canonical scalar fields. The amount of non-adiabatic pressure present at the end of inflation can have observational consequences through the generation of vorticity and subsequently the sourcing of B-mode polarisation. We compare two different definitions of isocurvature perturbations and show how these quantities evolve in dif…
The evolution of the non-adiabatic pressure perturbation during inflation driven by two scalar fields is studied numerically for three different types of models. In the first model, the fields have standard kinetic terms. The other two models considered feature non-canonical kinetic terms; the first containing two fields which are coupled via their kinetic terms, and the second where one field has the standard kinetic term with the other field being a DBI field. We find that the evolution and the final amplitude of the non-adiabatic pressure perturbation depends strongly on the kinetic terms.
We perform adiabatic regularization of power spectrum in nonminimally coupled general single-field inflation with varying speed of sound. The subtraction is performed within the framework of earlier study by Urakawa and Starobinsky dealing with the canonical inflation. Inspired by Fakir and Unruh's model on nonminimally coupled chaotic inflation, we find upon imposing near scale-invariant condition, that the subtraction term exponentially decays with the number of $ e $-folds. As in the result for the canonical inflation, the regularized power spectrum tends to the "bare" power spectrum as the…
The possibility that quantum corrections break the conservation of superhorizon adiabatic perturbations in single field inflation is examined. I consider the lowest order corrections from massless matter fields in the Hamiltonian formalism. Particular emphasis is therefore laid on the renormalization. The counterterms are the same as in the Lagrangian formalism. The renormalized value of the tadpole is zero. I find a possible secular dependence of the power spectrum at one loop due to the trace anomaly, but this result depends on the approximation of the modes and is inconclusive. The symmetry…
We study the dynamics of inflation driven by an adiabatic self-gravitating medium, extending the previous works on fluid and solid inflation. Such a class of media comprises perfect fluids, zero and finite temperature solids. By using an effective field theory description, we compute the power spectrum for the scalar curvature perturbation of constant energy density hypersurface $ζ$ and the comoving scalar curvature perturbation ${\cal R}$ in the case of slow-roll, super slow-roll and $w$-media inflation, an inflationary phase with $w$ constant in the range $-1 <w <-1/3$. A similar computation…
We express the in-in functional determinant giving the one-loop effective potential for a scalar field propagating in a cosmological spacetime in terms of the mode functions specifying the vacuum of the theory and then apply adiabatic regularization to make this bare potential finite. In this setup, the adiabatic regularization offers a particular renormalization prescription that isolates the effects of the cosmic expansion. We apply our findings to determine the radiative corrections to the classical inflaton potentials in scalar field inflationary models and also we derive an effective pote…
Non-adiabatic pressure perturbations naturally occur in models of inflation consisting of more than one scalar field. The amount of non-adiabatic pressure present at the end of inflation can have observational consequences through changes in the curvature perturbation, the generation of vorticity and subsequently the sourcing of B-mode polarisation. In this work, based on a presentation at the 13th Marcel Grossmann Meeting, we give a very brief overview of non-adiabatic pressure perturbations in multi-field inflationary models and describe our recent calculation of the spectrum of isocurvature…
We calculate the scalar spectral index $n_s$ and the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$ in a class of recently proposed two-field no-scale inflationary models in supergravity. We show that, in order to obtain correct predictions, it is crucial to take into account the coupling between the curvature and the isocurvature perturbations induced by the noncanonical form of the kinetic terms. This coupling enhances the curvature perturbation and suppresses the resulting tensor-to-scalar ratio to the per mille level even for values of the slow-roll parameter $ε\sim 0.01$. Beyond these particular models, we e…
We show that, in warm inflation, the nearly constant Hubble rate and temperature lead to an adiabatic evolution of the number density of particles interacting with the thermal bath, even if thermal equilibrium cannot be maintained. In this case, the number density is suppressed compared to the equilibrium value but the associated phase-space distribution retains approximately an equilibrium form, with a smaller amplitude and a slightly smaller effective temperature. As an application, we explicitly construct a baryogenesis mechanism during warm inflation based on the out-of-equilibrium decay o…
In multi-field inflation one or more non-adiabatic modes may become light, potentially inducing large levels of isocurvature perturbations in the cosmic microwave background. If in addition these light modes are coupled to the adiabatic mode, they influence its evolution on super horizon scales. Here we consider the case in which a non-adiabatic mode becomes approximately massless ("ultralight") while still coupled to the adiabatic mode, a typical situation that arises with pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone bosons or moduli. This ultralight mode freezes on super-horizon scales and acts as a constant sour…
We discuss the impact of adiabatic renormalization on the power spectrum of scalar and tensor perturbations from inflation. We show that adiabatic regularization is ambiguous as it leads to very different results, for different adiabatic subtraction schemes, both in the range $v\equiv k/(aH) \gsim 0.1$ and in the infrared regime. All these schemes agree in the far ultraviolet, $v\gg 1$. Therefore, we argue that in the far infrared regime, $v\ll 1$, the adiabatic expansion is no longer valid, and the unrenormalized spectra are the physical, measurable quantities. These findings cast some doubt …
In recent publications we proposed one way to calculate gauge-invariant variables in the local observable universe, which is limited to a portion of the whole universe. To provide a theoretical prediction of the observable fluctuations, we need to preserve the gauge-invariance in the local universe, which is referred to the genuine gauge-invariance. The importance of the genuine gauge-invariance is highlighted in the study of primordial fluctuations in the infrared (IR) limit. The stability against IR loop corrections to primordial fluctuations is guaranteed in requesting the genuine gauge-inv…
An analysis of the decoherence of quantum fluctuations shows that production of classical adiabatic density perturbations may not take place in models of power-law inflation with power 1< p < 3. Some consequences for models of extended inflation are pointed out. In general, the condition for decoherence places new constraint on inflationary models, which does not depend on often complicated subsequent evolution.
We initiate the study of multi-field inflation using holography. Bulk light scalar fields correspond to nearly marginal operators in the boundary theory and the dual quantum field theory is a deformation of a CFT by such operators. We compute the power spectra of adiabatic and entropy perturbations in a simple model and find that the adiabatic curvature perturbation is not conserved in the presence of entropy perturbations but becomes conserved when the entropy perturbations are set to zero or the model is effectively a single scalar model, in agreement with expectations from cosmological pert…
In this paper, we investigate the primordial perturbations of inflation model induced from the multi-field mimetic gravity, where there are two field during inflation, and thus both adiabatic and isocurvature perturbation modes are generated. We show that although it is true that the original adiabatic perturbation mode loses the kinetic term due to the constraint equation, by applying the curvaton mechanism where one of the field is viewed as curvaton field, the adiabatic perturbation can actually be transferred from the isocurvature one at the end of inflation. Detailed calculations are perf…
Warm inflation is examined in a multi-field model. Solutions are obtained for expansion e-folds and scalar density perturbations. Nonequilibrium dynamics is restricted to a regime that is displaced only slightly from thermal equilibrium and in which all macroscopic motion is adiabatic. In such a regime, nonequilibrium dynamics is well defined, provided macroscopic motions that displace the thermal equilibrium state occur sufficiently slow. The solution has adjustable parameters that permit observational consistency with respect to expansion e-folds and density perturbations in the full adiabat…
We develop a cosmological model where primordial inflation is driven by a 'solid', defined as a system of three derivatively coupled scalar fields obeying certain symmetries and spontaneously breaking a certain subgroup of these. The symmetry breaking pattern differs drastically from that of standard inflationary models: time translations are unbroken. This prevents our model from fitting into the standard effective field theory description of adiabatic perturbations, with crucial consequences for the dynamics of cosmological perturbations. Most notably, non-gaussianities in the curvature pert…
We employ the effective field theory approach for multi-field inflation which is a generalization of Weinberg's work. In this method the first correction terms in addition to standard terms in the Lagrangian have been considered. These terms contain up to the fourth derivative of the fields including the scalar field and the metric. The results show the possible shapes of the interaction terms resulting eventually in non-Gaussianity in a general formalism. In addition generally the speed of sound is different but almost unity. Since in this method the adiabatic mode is not discriminated initia…
We develop a theory of self-resonance after inflation. We study a large class of models involving multiple scalar fields with an internal symmetry. For illustration, we often specialize to dimension 4 potentials, but we derive results for general potentials. This is the first part of a two part series of papers. Here in Part 1 we especially focus on the behavior of long wavelengths modes, which are found to govern most of the important physics. Since the inflaton background spontaneously breaks the time translation symmetry and the internal symmetry, we obtain Goldstone modes; these are the ad…
We study adiabatic (curvature) and entropy (isocurvature) perturbations produced during a period of cosmological inflation that is driven by multiple scalar fields with an arbitrary interaction potential. A local rotation in field space is performed to separate out the adiabatic and entropy modes. The resulting field equations show explicitly how on large scales entropy perturbations can source adiabatic perturbations if the background solution follows a curved trajectory in field space, and how adiabatic perturbations cannot source entropy perturbations in the long-wavelength limit. It is the…
We study adiabatic and isocurvature perturbations produced during a period of cosmological inflation. We compute the power spectra and cross spectra of the curvature and isocurvature modes, as well as the tensor perturbation spectrum in terms of the slow-roll parameters. We provide two consistency relations for the amplitudes and spectral indices of the corresponding power spectra. These relations represent a definite prediction and a test of inflationary models which should be adopted when studying cosmological perturbations through the Cosmic Microwave Background in forthcoming satellite exp…
In the context of single-field inflation, the conservation of the curvature perturbation on comoving slices, $\R_c$, on super-horizon scales is one of the assumptions necessary to derive the consistency condition between the squeezed limit of the bispectrum and the spectrum of the primordial curvature perturbation. However, the conservation of $\R_c$ holds only after the perturbation has reached the adiabatic limit where the constant mode of $\R_c$ dominates over the other (usually decaying) mode. In this case, the non-adiabatic pressure perturbation defined in the thermodynamic sense, $δP_{na…
It is shown that double inflation (two minimally coupled massive scalar fields) can produce correlated adiabatic and isocurvature primordial perturbations. Depending on the two relevant parameters of the model, the contributions to the primordial perturbations are computed, with special emphasis on the correlation, which can be quantitatively represented by a correlation spectrum. Finally the primordial spectra are evolved numerically to obtain the CMBR anisotropy multipole expectation values. It turns out that the existence of mixing and correlation can alter very significantly the temperatur…
If an adiabatic density perturbation is responsible for large scale structure and the cmb anisotropy, its spectral index $n$ will be measured in the forseeable future with an accuracy $Δn\sim .01$. This is precisely the kind of accuracy required to distinguish between many models of inflation. Most of them have an inflationary potential $V\simeq V_0(1\pmμϕ^p)$ with the constant term dominating. Except for $0\lsim p\lsim 2$, the prediction is $n=1\pm (2/N)(p-1)/(p-2)$, where $N$ is the number of $e$-folds of inflation after cosmological scales leave the horizon. It typically lies in the range $…
As the quality of cosmological data continue to improve, it is natural to test the statistics of primordial fluctuations: are they Gaussian or non-Gaussian? I review a model which generates non-Gaussian adiabatic fluctuations from inflation. Current investigations suggest that there may possibly be a non-Gaussian signal in large angle cosmic microwave background anisotropy data. Statistics of microwave anisotropies could thus serve as a powerful probe of the very early Universe.
We argue that $isotropic$ scalar fluctuations in solid inflation are adiabatic in the super-horizon limit. During the solid phase this adiabatic mode has peculiar features: constant energy-density slices and comoving slices do not coincide, and their curvatures, parameterized respectively by $ζ$ and $\mathcal R$, both evolve in time. The existence of this adiabatic mode implies that Maldacena's squeezed limit consistency relation holds after angular average over the long mode. The correlation functions of a long-wavelength spherical scalar mode with several short scalar or tensor modes is fixe…
We compute the low energy effective field theory (EFT) expansion for single-field inflationary models that descend from a parent theory containing multiple other scalar fields. By assuming that all other degrees of freedom in the parent theory are sufficiently massive relative to the inflaton, it is possible to derive an EFT valid to arbitrary order in perturbations, provided certain generalized adiabaticity conditions are respected. These conditions permit a consistent low energy EFT description even when the inflaton deviates off its adiabatic minimum along its slowly rolling trajectory. By …
Constant roll inflation is analyzed in the presence of multi scalar fields which are assumed to be described by a constant roll rate each. The different cases are studied and the corresponding potentials are reconstructed. The exact solutions are obtained, which show a similar behaviour to the single scalar field model. For one of the cases analyzed in the paper, the so-called adiabatic field also constant rolls while entropy perturbations become null, while the second case may lead to non-adiabatic perturbations. Both cases can fit well the Planck data by assuming the appropriate values for t…
We present a consistent low energy effective field theory framework for parameterizing the effects of novel short distance physics in inflation, and their possible observational signatures in the Cosmic Microwave Background. We consider the class of general homogeneous, isotropic initial states for quantum scalar fields in Robertson-Walker (RW) spacetimes, subject to the requirement that their ultraviolet behavior be consistent with renormalizability of the covariantly conserved stress tensor which couples to gravity. In the functional Schrödinger picture such states are coherent, squeezed, mi…
We study the linear perturbations of multi-field inflationary models governed by a Lagrangian which is a general function of the scalar fields and of a global kinetic term combining their spacetime gradients with an arbitrary field space metric. Our analysis includes k-inflation, DBI inflation and its multi-field extensions which have been recently studied. For this general class of models, we calculate the action to second order in the linear perturbations. We decompose the perturbations into an (instantaneous) adiabatic mode, parallel to the background trajectory, and entropy modes. We show …
The regularization of the CMB power spectrum is an important issue of cosmology. Most approaches assume that there is no need to regularize the power spectrum, while Parker advocated the new regularization approach for the power spectrum in 2007: the adiabatic regularization, which was originally developed for particle creation in curved spacetime. This thesis focuses on this issue, especially concerning adiabatic subtraction terms. The subtraction terms for minimally coupled slow-roll inflation are well known. We extend the view to more generic inflation models, and derive the subtraction ter…
We review the theory of inflation with single and multiple fields paying particular attention to the dynamics of adiabatic and entropy/isocurvature perturbations which provide the primary means of testing inflationary models. We review the theory and phenomenology of reheating and preheating after inflation providing a unified discussion of both the gravitational and nongravitational features of multi-field inflation. In addition we cover inflation in theories with extra dimensions and models such as the curvaton scenario and modulated reheating which provide alternative ways of generating lar…
There is an apparent power deficit relative to the $Λ$CDM prediction of the CMB spectrum at large scales, which, though not yet statistically significant, persists from WMAP to Planck data. Proposals that invoke some form of initial condition for the inflation have been made to address this apparent power suppression, albeit with conflicting conclusions. By studying the curvature perturbations of a scalar field in the FLRW universe parameterized by the equation of state parameter $w$, we find that the large-scale spectrum at the end of inflation reflects the super-horizon spectrum of the initi…
Presented is the exact solution of the problem of finding a potential of an inflaton scalar field for which adiabatic perturbations generated during a de Sitter (inflationary) stage in the early Universe have the exactly flat (or, the Harrison-Zeldovich) initial spectrum. This solution lies outside the scope of the slow-roll approximation and higher-order corrections to it. The potential found depends on two arbitrary physical constants, one of those determines an amplitude of perturbations. For small (zero) values of the other constant, a long (infinite) inflationary stage with slow rolling o…
In this paper we investigate the general features of "Oscillatory Inflation". In adiabatic approximation, we derive a general formula for the number of e-foldings $\tilde{N}$ which reduces to the standard expression in case of the slow role approximation and leads to the Damour-Mukhanov type expression for the slowly varying adiabatic index. We apply our result to the logarithmic potential and arrive at a simple and elegant formula for the number of e-foldings. We evolve the field equations numerically and observe a remarkable agreement with the analytical result.
Adiabatic regularization is a method to remove UV divergences in quantum fields in curved spacetime. For relic gravitational wave generated during inflation, regularization on all $k$-modes of the power spectrum to 2nd adiabatic order, and of the energy density and pressure to 4th order, respectively, causes low-frequency distortions. To avoid these, we regularize only the short modes inside the horizon during inflation (corresponding to the present frequencies $f \gtrsim 10^{9}$Hz), and keep the long modes intact. Doing this does not violate the energy conservation since the $k$-modes of RGW …
This paper represents an in-depth treatment of the chain inflation scenario. We fully determine the evolution of the universe in the model, the necessary conditions in order to have a successful inflationary period, and the matching with the observational results regarding the cosmological perturbations. We study in great detail, and in general, the dynamics of the background, as well as the mechanism of generation of the perturbations. We also find an explicit formula for the spectrum of adiabatic perturbations. Our results prove that chain inflation is a viable model for solving the horizon,…
The present work deals with a non-equilibrium thermodynamics that is associated with the scenario of warm inflation. The premise is that an adiabatic radiation production process holds exactly i.e. the radiation dilution is exactly counterbalanced by a dissipation term. Under this hypothesis, it is found that radiation particle number, temperature, radiation energy density and pressure are all conserved -- a contradiction to the very nature of the warm inflation dynamics. However, such exact adiabatic radiation production process never happens in any realistic analysis of warm inflation. In th…
We analyse the evolution of primordial magnetic fields in spatially flat Friedmann universes and reconsider the belief that, after inflation, these fields decay adiabatically on all scales. Without~abandoning classical electromagnetism or standard cosmology, we demonstrate that this is not necessarily the case for superhorizon-sized magnetic fields. The underlying reason for this is causality, which confines the post-inflationary process of electric-current formation, electric-field elimination and magnetic-flux freezing within the horizon. As a result, the adiabatic magnetic decay is not a~pr…
We study the adiabatic density perturbation in the {\it oscillating inflation}, proposed by Damour and Mukhanov. The recent study of the cosmological perturbation during reheating shows that the adiabatic fluctuation behaves like as the perfect fluid and no significant amplification occurs on super-horizon scales. In the oscillating inflation, however, the accelerated expansion takes place during the oscillating stage and there might be a possibility that the parametric amplification on small scales affects the adiabatic long-wavelength perturbation. We analytically show that the density pertu…
In quintessential inflationary model, the same master field that drives inflation becomes, later on, the dynamical source of the (present) accelerated expansion. Quintessential inflationary models require a curvature scale at the end of inflation around $10^{-6}M_{\rm P}$ in order to explain the large scale fluctuations observed in the microwave sky. If the curvature scale at the end of inflation is much smaller than $10^{-6}M_{\rm P}$, the large scale adiabatic mode may be produced thanks to the relaxation of a scalar degree of freedom, which will be generically denoted, according to the rece…
Spectrum of density perturbations in the Universe generated from quantum-gravitational fluctuations in slow-roll-over inflationary scenarios with the Brans-Dicke gravity is calculated. It is shown that after inflation the isocurvature mode of perturbations may be neglected as compared to the adiabatic mode, and that an amplitude of the latter mode is not significantly different from that in the Einstein gravity. However, the account of the isocurvature mode is necessary to obtain the quantitatively correct spectrum of adiabatic perturbations.
We study the tensor consistency relation in models of axion inflation with an SU(2) gauge field. In the tensor sector, we have two spin-2 modes, the standard gravity waves and the tensor perturbations of the SU(2) gauge field which sources the gravity waves at the linear level. Interestingly enough, we find that the gravity waves are adiabatic and Maldacena's consistency relation including a long wavelength gravity wave holds in this setup. However, since it is partially polarized, there is a difference between the (n+1)-point functions with different helicity states proportional to the ratio …
We show explicitly some exciting features of double-inflation: (i) it can often lead to strongly correlated adiabatic and entropy (isocurvature) power spectra. (ii) The two-field slow-roll consistency relations can be violated when the correlation is large at Hubble crossing. (iii) The spectra of adiabatic and entropy perturbations can be strongly scale-dependent and tilted toward either the red or blue. These effects are typically due to a light or time-dependent entropy mass and a non-negligible angular velocity in field space during inflation. They are illustrated via a multi-parameter nume…
The production of Primordial Black Holes (PBH) from inflationary perturbations provides a physical process where the effective classicality of the fluctuations does not hold for certain scales. For adiabatic perturbations produced during inflation, this range of scales corresponds to PBH with masses $M\ll 10^{15}$ g. For PBH with masses $M\sim M_H(t_e)$, the horizon mass at the end of inflation, the generation process during the preheating stage could be classical as well, in contrast to the formation of PBH on these scales by adiabatic inflationary perturbations. For the non evaporated PBH, t…
Warm inflation is an interesting possibility of describing the early universe, whose basic feature is the absence, at least in principle, of a preheating or reheating phase. Here we analyze the dynamics of warm inflation generalizing the usual slow-roll parameters that are useful for characterizing the inflationary phase. We study the evolution of entropy and adiabatic perturbations, where the main result is that for a very small amount of dissipation the entropy perturbations can be neglected and the purely adiabatic perturbations will be responsible for the primordial spectrum of inhomogenei…
In most of the literature on evolution of cosmological magnetic fields, it is found that large-scale magnetic fields evolve as $B^{2}\propto a^{-4}$ (adiabatic magnetic decay) where $a$ is the cosmological scale factor and $B$ is the cosmological magnetic field. This rapid decay has been considered as the main obstacle against magnetic fields produced during the inflationary epoch from surviving until today and seeding the observed fields. However, recent reports of first ever detection of intergalactic fields, with strengths around $10^{-6}G$ are a mystery [1-4]. One possible explanation is t…
We study non-linear primordial adiabatic and isocurvature perturbations and their non-Gaussianity. After giving a general formulation in the context of an extended delta N-formalism, we analyse in detail two illustrative examples. The first is a mixed curvaton-inflaton scenario in which fluctuations of both the inflaton and a curvaton (a light isocurvature field during inflation) contribute to the primordial density perturbation. The second example is that of double inflation involving two decoupled massive scalar fields during inflation. In the mixed curvaton-inflaton scenario we find that th…
We investigate the phenomenology of warm inflation and present generic results about the evolution of the inflaton and radiation fields. The general conditions required for warm inflation to take place are derived and discussed. A comprehensive approach is presented for the generation of thermally induced adiabatic and isocurvature perturbations and the amplitude of their spectra calculated. In addition we derive the ratio of tensor-to-scalar perturbations and find the spectral indices for adiabatic, isocurvature and tensor perturbations formed in the warm inflationary era. These results are p…
We demonstrate that adiabatic dark matter can be generated by gravity induced symmetry breaking during inflation. We study a $Z_2$ symmetric scalar singlet that couples to other fields only through gravity and for which the symmetry is broken by the spacetime curvature during inflation when the non-minimal coupling $ξ$ is negative. We find that the symmetry breaking leads to the formation of adiabatic dark matter with the observed abundance for the singlet mass $m\sim{\rm MeV}$ and $|ξ|\sim 1$.
We constrain cosmological models where the primordial perturbations have both an adiabatic and a (possibly correlated) cold dark matter (CDM) or baryon isocurvature component. We use both a phenomenological approach, where the primordial power spectra are parametrized with amplitudes and spectral indices, and a slow-roll two-field inflation approach where slow-roll parameters are used as primary parameters. In the phenomenological case, with CMB data, the upper limit to the CDM isocurvature fraction is α<6.4% at k=0.002Mpc^{-1} and 15.4% at k=0.01Mpc^{-1}. The median 95% range for the non-adia…
Adiabatic (curvature) perturbations are produced during a period of cosmological inflation that is driven by a single scalar field, the inflaton. On particle physics grounds -- though -- it is natural to expect that this scalar field is coupled to other scalar degrees of freedom. This gives rise to oscillations between the perturbation of the inflaton field and the perturbations of the other scalar degrees of freedom, similar to the phenomenon of neutrino oscillations. Since the degree of the mixing is governed by the squared mass matrix of the scalar fields, the oscillations can occur even if…
We study the metric perturbations produced during inflation in models with two scalar fields evolving simultaneously. In particular, we emphasize how the large-scale curvature perturbation $ζ$ on fixed energy density hypersurfaces may not be conserved in general for multiple field inflation due to the presence of entropy as well as adiabatic fluctuations. We show that the usual method of solving the linearized perturbation equations is equivalent to the recently proposed analysis of Sasaki and Stewart in terms of the perturbed expansion along neighboring trajectories in field-space. In the cas…
We propose a model for early universe cosmology without the need for fundamental scalar fields. Cosmic acceleration and phenomenologically viable reheating of the universe results from a series of energy transitions, where during each transition vacuum energy is converted to thermal radiation. We show that this `cascading universe' can lead to successful generation of adiabatic density fluctuations and an observable gravity wave spectrum in some cases, where in the simplest case it reproduces a spectrum similar to slow-roll models of inflation. We also find the model provides a reasonable rehe…
