Although natural inflation is a theoretically well-motivated model for cosmic inflation, it is in tension with recent Planck cosmic microwave background anisotropy measurements. We present a way to alleviate this tension by considering a very weak nonminimal coupling of the inflaton field to gravity in both contexts of metric and Palatini formulations of general relativity. We start our discussions with a generic form of the inflaton coupling to the Ricci scalar, then focus on a simple form to do phenomenological study. Our results show that such an extension can bring natural inflation's predictions to a good agreement with the Planck data. Depending on values of the coupling constant $ξ$ and the symmetry breaking scale $f$, we find that with $|ξ|\sim 10^{-3}$ and $f\gtrsim 2.0 M_{\mathrm{pl}}$ predictions of the model stay inside $68\%$ CL allowed region until $f$ increases up to $7.7 M_{\mathrm{pl}}$, then only inside $95\%$ CL region after $f$ exceeds the latter value. The predictions from the metric and the Palatini theories are very similar due to the simple form of the coupling function we use and the small magnitude of the coupling $ξ$. Successful reheating can also be realized in this model.
Multifield models of inflation with nonminimal couplings are in excellent agreement with the recent results from {\it Planck}. Across a broad range of couplings and initial conditions, such models evolve along an effectively single-field attractor solution and predict values of the primordial spectral index and its running, the tensor-to-scalar ratio, and non-Gaussianities squarely in the observationally most-favored region. Such models also can amplify isocurvature perturbations, which could account for the low power recently observed in the CMB power spectrum at low multipoles. Future measur…
Recent measurements by the {\it Planck} experiment of the power spectrum of temperature anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB) reveal a deficit of power in low multipoles compared to the predictions from best-fit $Λ$CDM cosmology. The low-$\ell$ anomaly may be explained by the presence of primordial isocurvature perturbations in addition to the usual adiabatic spectrum, and hence may provide the first robust evidence that early-universe inflation involved more than one scalar field. In this paper we explore the production of isocurvature perturbations in nonminimally c…
We construct the global phase portraits of inflationary dynamics in teleparallel gravity models with a scalar field nonminimally coupled to torsion scalar. The adopted set of variables can clearly distinguish between different asymptotic states as fixed points, including the kinetic and inflationary regimes. The key role in the description of inflation is played by the heteroclinic orbits which run from the asymptotic saddle points to the late time attractor point and are approximated by nonminimal slow roll conditions. To seek the asymptotic fixed points we outline a heuristic method in terms…
Inflationary models with a scalar field nonminimally coupled both with the Ricci scalar and with the Gauss-Bonnet term are studied. We propose the way of generalization of inflationary scenarios with the Gauss-Bonnet term and a scalar field minimally coupled with the Ricci scalar to the corresponding scenarios with a scalar field nonminimally coupled with the Ricci scalar. Using the effective potential, we construct a set of models with the same values of the scalar spectral index $n_s$ and the amplitude of the scalar perturbations $A_s$ and different values of the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$.
We reconsider the dynamical systems approach to analyze inflationary universe in the Jordan frame models of scalar field nonminimally coupled to curvature. The adopted set of variables allows us to clearly distinguish between different asymptotic states in the phase space, including the kinetic and inflationary regimes. Inflation is realized as a heteroclinic trajectory originating either at infinity from a nonhyperbolic asymptotic de Sitter point or from a regular saddle de Sitter point. We also present a comprehensive picture of possible initial conditions leading to sufficient inflationary …
Realistic models of high-energy physics include multiple scalar fields. Renormalization requires that the fields have nonminimal couplings to the spacetime Ricci curvature scalar, and the couplings can be large at the energy scales of early-universe inflation. The nonminimal couplings induce a nontrivial field-space manifold in the Einstein frame, and they also yield an effective potential in the Einstein frame with nontrivial curvature. The ridges or bumps in the Einstein-frame potential can lead to primordial non-Gaussianities of observable magnitude. We develop a covariant formalism to stud…
We show explicitly how the T model, E model, and Hilltop inflations are obtained from the general scalar-tensor theory of gravity with arbitrary conformal factors in the strong coupling limit. We argue that $ξ$ attractors can give any observables $n_s$ and $r$ by this method. The existence of attractors imposes a challenge to distinguish different models.
Nonminimally coupled inflation models based on a nonminimal coupling $ξϕ^{2} R$ and a $ϕ^{4}$ potential are in excellent agreement with the scalar spectral index observed by Planck. Here we consider the modification of these models by a conformal factor with a zero. This enables a nonminimally coupled model to have a Planck-scale potential energy density at large values of the inflaton field, which can account for the smooth, potential-dominated volume that is necessary for inflation to start. We show that models with a conformal factor zero generally predict a correlated increase of the spect…
We propose a novel enhancement mechanism of the curvature perturbations in the nonminimal derivative coupling inflation model with a coupling parameter related to the inflaton field. By considering a special form of the coupling parameter as a function of the inflaton, a period of ultra-slow-roll inflation can be realized due to the gravitationally enhanced friction, and the resulting power spectrum of the curvature perturbations has a sharp peak, which is large enough to produce the primordial black holes. Under this mechanism, we can easily obtain a sharp mass spectrum of primordial black ho…
Models of cosmic inflation suggest that our universe underwent an early phase of accelerated expansion, driven by the dynamics of one or more scalar fields. Inflationary models make specific, quantitative predictions for several observable quantities, including particular patterns of temperature anistropies in the cosmic microwave background radiation. Realistic models of high-energy physics include many scalar fields at high energies. Moreover, we may expect these fields to have nonminimal couplings to the spacetime curvature. Such couplings are quite generic, arising as renormalization count…
Realistic models of particle physics include many scalar fields. These fields generically have nonminimal couplings to the Ricci curvature scalar, either as part of a generalized Einstein theory or as necessary counterterms for renormalization in curved background spacetimes. We develop a gauge-invariant formalism for calculating primordial perturbations in models with multiple nonminimally coupled fields. We work in the Jordan frame (in which the nonminimal couplings remain explicit) and identify two distinct sources of entropy perturbations for such models. One set of entropy perturbations a…
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 when the nonminimal couplings are negative, the field starts in slow roll and inflation ends with an asymptotic value of the principal slow roll parameter, $ε_E=4/3$. Graceful exit can be achieved by suitably (tightly) coupling the scalar field to matter, such that at late time the total energy density reaches the scaling of matter, $ε_E=ε_m$. Quite generica…
In the context of nonminimally coupled $f(R)$ gravity theories, we study early inflation driven by a nonlinear monopole magnetic field which is nonminimally coupled to curvature. In order to isolate the effects of the nonminimal coupling between matter and curvature we assume the pure gravitational sector to have the Einstein-Hilbert form. Thus, we study the most simple model with a nonminimal coupling function which is linear in the Ricci scalar. From an effective fluid description, we show the existence of an early exponential expansion regime of the Universe, followed by a transition to a r…
Recent and upcoming experimental data as well as the possibility of rich phenomenology has spiked interest in studying the quantum gravitational effects in cosmology at low (inflation-era) energy scales. While Planck scale physics is under development, it is still possible to incorporate quantum gravity effects at relatively low energies using quantum field theory in curved spacetime, which serves as a low-energy limit of planck scale physics. We use the Vilkovisky-DeWitt's covariant effective action formalism to study quantum gravitational corrections to a recently proposed Natural Inflation …
Dynamics of potential-free warm $\mathbf{k}$-inflation with nonminimal derivative coupling
School of Science, Qingdao University of Technology（青岛理工大学理学院）；School of Physics and Advanced Energy, Henan University of Technology（河南工业大学物理与能源工程学院）；College of Physics and Electronic Information, Inner Mongolia Normal University（内蒙古师范大学物理与电子信息学院）
Recently there was an extensive discussion of Higgs inflation in the theory with the potential λ(ϕ^2-v^2)^2 and nonminimal coupling to gravity {ξ\over 2}ϕ^2R, for ξ>> 1 and v<< 1. We extend this investigation to the theories m^2ϕ^2 and λ(ϕ^2-v^2)^2 with arbitrary values of ξand v and describe implementation of these models in supergravity. We analyze observational consequences of these models and find a surprising coincidence of the inflationary predictions of the model λ(ϕ^2-v^2)^2 with ξ<0 in the limit |ξ|v^2 \to 1 with the predictions of the Higgs inflation scenario for ξ>> 1.
This is the first of a three-part series of papers, in which we study the preheating phase for multifield models of inflation involving nonminimal couplings. In this paper, we study the single-field attractor behavior that these models exhibit during inflation and quantify its strength and parameter dependence. We further demonstrate that the strong single-field attractor behavior persists after the end of inflation. Preheating in such models therefore generically avoids the "de-phasing" that typically affects multifield models with minimally coupled fields, allowing efficient transfer of ener…
We study the post-inflation dynamics of multifield models involving nonminimal couplings using lattice simulations to capture significant nonlinear effects like backreaction and rescattering. We measure the effective equation of state and typical time-scales for the onset of thermalization, which could affect the usual mapping between predictions for primordial perturbation spectra and measurements of anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background radiation. For large values of the nonminimal coupling constants, we find efficient particle production that gives rise to nearly instantaneous pre…
We study the dynamics of a generalized inflationary model in which both the scalar field and its derivatives are coupled to the gravity. We consider a general form of the nonminimal derivative coupling in order to have a complete treatment of the model. By expanding the action up to the second order in perturbation, we study the spectrum of the primordial modes of the perturbations. Also, by expanding the action up to the third order and considering the three point correlation functions, the amplitude of the non-Gaussianity of the primordial perturbations is studied both in equilateral and ort…
We propose an inflationary scenario based on the concurrent presence of non-minimal coupling (NMC) and generalized non-minimal derivative coupling (GNMDC), in the context of Higgs inflation. The combined construction maintains the advantages of the individual scenarios without sharing their disadvantages. In particular, a long inflationary phase can be easily achieved due to the gravitational friction effect owed to the GNMDC, without leading to trans-Planckian values and unitarity violation. Additionally, the tensor-to-scalar ratio remains to low values due to the NMC contribution. Finally, t…
This paper concludes our semi-analytic study of preheating in inflationary models comprised of multiple scalar fields coupled nonminimally to gravity. Using the covariant framework of paper I in this series, we extend the rigid-spacetime results of paper II by considering both the expansion of the universe during preheating, as well as the effect of the coupled metric perturbations on particle production. The adiabatic and isocurvature perturbations are governed by different effective masses that scale differently with the nonminimal couplings and evolve differently in time. The effective mass…
We study particle production at the preheating era in inflation models with nonminimal coupling $ξϕ^2R$ and quartic potential $λϕ^4/4$ for several cases: real scalar inflaton, complex scalar inflaton and Abelian Higgs inflaton. We point out that the preheating proceeds much more violently than previously thought. If the inflaton is a complex scalar, the phase degree of freedom is violently produced at the first stage of preheating. If the inflaton is a Higgs field, the longitudinal gauge boson production is similarly violent. This is caused by a spike-like feature in the time dependence of the…
We extend the Coleman--Weinberg inflationary model where a scalar field $ϕ$ is non-minimally coupled to gravity with the addition of the $R^2$ term. We express the theory in terms of two scalar fields and going to the Einstein frame we employ the Gildener--Weinberg formalism, compute the one-loop effective potential and essentially reduce the problem to the case of single-field inflation. It turns out that there is only one free parameter, namely, the mixing angle between the scalars. For a wide range of this angle, we compute the inflationary observables which are in agreement with the latest…
We study the possibility of the Primordial Black Holes (PBHs) formation with the aim of finding a considerable fraction of Dark Matter (DM), using the gravitationally enhanced friction mechanism which arises from a nonminimal derivative coupling between the scalar field and the gravity. Assuming the nonminimal coupling parameter as a special function of the scalar field and considering the potential of natural inflation, we find three parameter sets that produce a period of ultra slow-roll inflation. This leads to sufficiently large enhancement in the curvature power spectra to form PBHs. We s…
In this letter we study the dynamics of the late Universe when a nonminimally coupled Higgs field is present. In general, the nonminimal coupling leads to a nontrivial mixing between the gravitational degrees of freedom and the Goldstone massless bosons. We know that this is irrelevant during the inflationary phase. In contrast, in the late Universe the nonminimal coupling affects the classical equations of motion, leading to an acceleration of the expansion rate or to a collapse that forms Q-balls.
We have conducted extensive lattice simulations to study the post-inflation dynamics of multifield models involving nonminimal couplings. We explore the parameter dependence of preheating in these models and describe the various time-scales that control such nonlinear processes as energy transfer, re-scattering, and the approach to radiation-domination and thermalization. In the limit of large nonminimal couplings ($ξ_I \sim 100$), we find that efficient transfer of energy from the inflaton condensate to radiative degrees of freedom, emergence of a radiation-dominated equation of state, and th…
In the previous work, a new kind of inflation model was proposed, which has the interesting property that its perturbation equation of motion gets a correction of k^4, due to the non-linearity of the kinetic term. Nonetheless, the scale-invariance of the power spectrum remains valid, both in large-k and small-k limits. In this paper, we investigate in detail the spectral index, the index running and the tensor/scalar ratio in this model, especially on the potential-driven case, and compare the results to the current PLANCK/BICEP observational data. We also discuss the tensor spectrum in this c…
Anisotropic and isotropic slow-roll inflation supported by n-forms are sought. Canonical field strengths and their duals are taken into account, and they are allowed to have a potential and also, when necessary for slow-roll, a nonminimal curvature coupling. New isotropic solutions are found for three-forms. It is also shown that some n-form actions are equivalent to f(R) gravity and scalar field models with possible nonminimal couplings. Anisotropic solutions are found for two-forms, generalising vector inflation, however, also the two-form is unstable during inflation due to the nonminimal c…
We perform an extensive analysis of linear fluctuations during preheating in Higgs inflation in the Einstein frame, where the fields are minimally coupled to gravity, but the field-space metric is nontrivial. The self-resonance of the Higgs and the Higgsed gauge bosons are governed by effective masses that scale differently with the nonminimal couplings and evolve differently in time. Coupled metric perturbations enhance Higgs self-resonance and make it possible for Higgs inflation to preheat solely through this channel. For $ξ\gtrsim 100$ the total energy of the Higgs-inflaton condensate can …
We show that gravitational theories with a nonminimal coupling (NMC) to the matter fields lead to a violation of Etherington's distance-duality relation, which relates the luminosity and angular diameter distances. We derive constraints on power-law and exponential NMC models using existing measurements of type Ia supernovae and baryon acoustic oscillations throughout the redshift range $0<z<1.5$. These complement previous constrains derived from cosmic-microwave background radiation and big-bang nucleosynthesis data.
We investigate the sensitivity of Higgs(-like) inflation to higher dimensional operators in the nonminimal couplings and in the potential, both in the metric and Palatini formalisms. We find that, while inflationary predictions are relatively stable against the higher dimensional operators around the attractor point in the metric formalism, they are extremely sensitive in the Palatini one: for the latter, inflationary predictions are spoiled by $|ξ_4| \gtrsim 10^{-6}$ in the nonminimal couplings $(ξ_2 ϕ^2 + ξ_4 ϕ^4 + \cdots)R$, or by $|λ_6| \gtrsim 10^{-16}$ in the Jordan-frame potential $λ_4 …
Primordial black holes (PBHs) provide an exciting prospect for accounting for dark matter. In this paper, we consider inflationary models that incorporate realistic features from high-energy physics -- including multiple interacting scalar fields and nonminimal couplings to the spacetime Ricci scalar -- that could produce PBHs with masses in the range required to address the present-day dark matter abundance. Such models are consistent with supersymmetric constructions, and only incorporate operators in the effective action that would be expected from generic effective field theory considerati…
In extended models of gravity a nonminimal coupling to matter has been assumed to lead to irreversible particle creation. In this paper we challenge this assumption. We argue that a non-minimal coupling of the matter and gravitational sectors results in a change in particle-momentum on a cosmological timescale, irrespective of particle creation or decay. We further argue that particle creation or decay associated with a non-minimal coupling to gravity could only happen as a result of significant deviations from a homogeneous Friedmann-Robertson-Walker geometry on microscopic scales, and provid…
We investigate the possibility of inflation with models of antisymmetric tensor field having minimal and nonminimal couplings to gravity. Although the minimal model does not support inflation, the nonminimal models, through the introduction of a nonminimal coupling to gravity, can give rise to stable de-Sitter solutions with a bound on the coupling parameters. The values of field and coupling parameters are sub-planckian. Slow roll analysis is performed and slow-roll parameters are defined which can give the required number of e-folds for sufficient inflation. Stability analysis has been perfo…
We perform a phase space analysis of a generalized modified gravity theory with nonminimally coupling between geometry and matter. We apply the dynamical system approach to this generalized model and find that in the cosmological context, different choices of Lagrangian density will apparently result in different phases of the Universe. By carefully choosing the variables, we prove that there is an attractor solution to describe the late time accelerating universe when the modified gravity is chosen in a simple power-law form of the curvature scalar. We further examine the temperature evolutio…
This is the second in a series of papers on preheating in inflationary models comprised of multiple scalar fields coupled nonminimally to gravity. In this paper, we work in the rigid-spacetime approximation and consider field trajectories within the single-field attractor, which is a generic feature of these models. We construct the Floquet charts to find regions of parameter space in which particle production is efficient for both the adiabatic and isocurvature modes, and analyze the resonance structure using analytic and semi-analytic techniques. Particle production in the adiabatic directio…
In this paper we demonstrate that Boltzmann's $H$-theorem does not necessarily hold in the context of theories of gravity with nonminimally coupled matter fields. We find sufficient conditions for the violation of Boltzmann's $H$-theorem and derive an expression for the evolution of Boltzmann's $H$ in terms of the nonminimal coupling function, valid in the case of a collisionless gas in a homogeneous and isotropic Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker universe. We highlight the implications of this result for the evolution of the entropy of the matter fields, briefly discussing the role played b…
In this work, we perform a detailed dynamical analysis for the cosmological applications of a nonminimal torsion-matter coupled gravity. Two alternative formalisms are proposed, which enable one to choose between the easier approach for a given problem, and furthermore, we analyze six specific models. In general, we extract fixed points corresponding either to dark-matter dominated, scaling decelerated solutions, or to dark-energy dominated accelerated solutions. Additionally, we find that there is a small parameter region in which the model can experience the transition from the matter epoch …
We investigate two-field inflationary models in which scalar cosmological pertubations are generated via a spectator field nonminimally coupled to gravity, with the particular emphasis on curvaton scenarios. The principal advantage of these models is in the possibility to tune the spectator spectral index via the nonminimal coupling. Our models naturally yield red spectrum of the adiabatic perturbation demanded by observations. We study how the nonminimal coupling affects the spectrum of the curvature perturbation generated in the curvaton scenarios. In particular we find that for small, negat…
We study a nonminimal derivative inflationary model in the presence of the Gauss-Bonnet term. To have a complete treatment of the model, we consider a general form of the nonminimal derivative function and also the Gauss-Bonnet coupling term. By following the ADM formalism, expanding the action up to the third order in the perturbations and using the correlation functions, we study the perturbation and its non-Gaussian feature in details. We also study the consistency relation that gets modified in the presence of the Gauss-Bonnet term in the action. We compare the results of our consideration…
The lore paradigm for solving so-called horizon and flatness problems in cosmology is the primordial inflation. Plethora of inflationary models have been built in last decades and first experimental probes seem to appear in favor of the inflationary paradigm. We will focus here on one of them, the Higgs inflation, and show the combined constraint required for such a model at cosmological as well as gravitational scales, i.e. for compact objects. We will show that Higgs inflation model gives rise to particlelike solutions around compact objects, dubbed Higgs monopoles, characterized by the nonm…
In this paper, we continue our study on the curvaton model with nonminimal derivative coupling (NDC) to Einstein gravity proposed in our previous work, focusing on the reheating mechanism. We found that according to whether the curvaton has dominated the background after the end of inflation, it will have two different behaviors of evolution, which should be the general property of curvaton with nonminimal couplings. This will cause diffferent rates of particle creation, which goes on via the parametric resonance process. The reheating temperature is estimated for both cases in which reheating…
