We argue that double inflation may occur when a spectator field is non-minimally coupled to gravity. As a concrete example, we study a two-field inflationary model where the initial spectator field is non-minimally coupled to gravity while the initial inflaton field is minimally coupled. The non-minimal coupling results in the growth of the spectator field which, in turn, drives the second stage of inflation in a significant region of parameter space. The isocurvature fluctuations originating from the spectator field source adiabatic ones, and hence the spectator non-minimal coupling can modify the inflationary predictions for the spectral index and the tensor-to-scalar ratio even though the initial inflaton field is minimally coupled to gravity. We explicitly show that quadratic chaotic inflation can become viable by the introduction of the spectator non-minimal coupling.
We consider the possibility of enhancing the inflationary tensor mode by introducing a spectator scalar field with a small sound speed which induces gravitational waves as a second order effect. We analytically obtain the power spectra of gravitational waves and curvature perturbation induced by the spectator scalar field. We found that the small sound speed amplifies the curvature perturbation much more than the tensor mode and the current observational constraint forces the induced gravitational waves to be negligible compared with those from the vacuum fluctuation during inflation.
It has been argued that oscillatory features from spectator fields in the primordial power spectrum could be a probe of alternatives to inflation. In this work, we soften this claim by showing that the frequency and amplitude dependence of the patterns appearing in these scenarios could be mimicked by field interactions during inflation. The degeneracy of the frequency holds for the $n$-point correlation functions, while the degeneracy of the amplitude is broken at the level of non-gaussianities.
Perturbations in cosmic microwave background (CMB) photons and large scale structure of the universe are sourced primarily by the curvature perturbation which is widely believed to be produced during inflation. In this paper we present a 2-field inflationary model in which the inflaton couples bi-quadratically to a spectator field. We show that the spectator induces a rapid growth of the momentum of the curvature perturbation and the associated Gaussian van Neumann entropy during inflation such that the initial conditions at the end of inflation are substantially different from the standard on…
We study the stochastic distribution of spectator fields predicted in different slow-roll inflation backgrounds. Spectator fields have a negligible energy density during inflation but may play an important dynamical role later, even giving rise to primordial density perturbations within our observational horizon today. During de-Sitter expansion there is an equilibrium solution for the spectator field which is often used to estimate the stochastic distribution during slow-roll inflation. However slow roll only requires that the Hubble rate varies slowly compared to the Hubble time, while the t…
In this paper we will discuss analytically the perturbations created from a slowly rolling subdominant spectator field which decays much before the end of inflation. The quantum fluctuations of such a spectator field can seed perturbations on very large scales and explain the temperature anisotropy in the cosmic microwave background radiation with moderate non-Gaussianity, provided the relevant modes leave the Hubble patch while the spectator is slowly rolling. Furthermore, the perturbations are purely {\it adiabatic} since the inflaton decay dominates and creates all the Standard Model degree…
Primordial Black Holes from Inflation with a Spectator Field
University of Manitoba（曼尼托巴大学）；University of Winnipeg（温尼伯大学）；Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics（圣克鲁兹粒子物理研究所）；University of California, Santa Cruz（加州大学圣克鲁兹分校）；Yale University（耶鲁大学）；Massachusetts Institute of Technology（麻省理工学院）
Motivated by the result of Planck+BICEP/Keck recently released, we investigate the consistency of the multi-field inflation models in terms of the spectral index $n_s$ and the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$. In this study, we focus on double-inflaton models with and without a spectator field. We find that inflaton with a quadratic potential can become viable when three fields with a specific hierarchical mass spectrum are realized such that two fields act as inflatons and the other one is the spectator. We also discuss the conditions to avoid the fine-tuning, by careful study of how the prediction…
A new model of thermal inflation is introduced, in which the mass of the thermal waterfall field is dependent on a light spectator scalar field. Using the $δN$ formalism, the "end of inflation" scenario is investigated in order to ascertain whether this model is able to produce the dominant contribution to the primordial curvature perturbation. A multitude of constrains are considered so as to explore the parameter space, with particular emphasis to key observational signatures. For natural values of the parameters, the model is found to yield a sharp prediction for the scalar spectral index a…
We investigate the possibility that the primordial perturbation has two sources: the inflaton and a spectator field, which is not dynamically important during inflation but which after inflation can contribute to the curvature perturbation. The recent Planck results on the power spectrum and non-Gaussianity allow us to put constraints on such mixed models. In the generic case, where no specific model for the inflaton or the spectator is assumed, one finds that in the mixed scenario it is possible to have a large trispectrum with tau_NL >> (f_NL)^2. The constraints on inflation models in the pl…
The observed dark matter abundance in the Universe can be fully accounted for by a minimally coupled spectator scalar field that was light during inflation and has sufficiently strong self-coupling. In this scenario, dark matter was produced during inflation by amplification of quantum fluctuations of the spectator field. The self-interaction of the field suppresses its fluctuations on large scales, and therefore avoids isocurvature constraints. The scenario does not require any fine-tuning of parameters. In the simplest case of a single real scalar field, the mass of the dark matter particle …
This thesis begins with an introduction to the state of the art of modern Cosmology. The field of Particle Cosmology is then introduced and explored, in particular with regard to the study of cosmological inflation. We then introduce a new model of Thermal Inflation, in which the mass of the thermal waterfall field responsible for the inflation is dependent on a light spectator scalar field. The model contains a variety of free parameters, two of which control the power of the coupling term and the non-renormalizable term. We use the $δN$ formalism to investigate the "end of inflation" and mod…
In the context of string theory, several conjectural conditions have been proposed for low energy effective field theories not to be in swampland, the UV-incomplete class. The recent ones represented by the de Sitter and trans-Planckian censorship conjectures in particular seem to conflict with the inflation paradigm of the early universe. We first point out that scenarios where inflation is repeated several times (multi-phase inflation) can be easily compatible with these conjectures. In other words, we relax the constraint on the single inflation for the large scale perturbations to only con…
The chromo-natural inflation (CNI) scenario predicts a potentially detectable chiral gravitational wave signal, generated by a Chern-Simons coupling between a rolling scalar axion field and an SU(2) gauge field with an isotropy-preserving classical background during inflation. However, the generation of this signal requires a very large integer Chern-Simons level, which can be challenging to explain or embed in a UV-complete model. We show that this challenge persists in the phenomenologically viable spectator field CNI (S-CNI) model. Furthermore, we show that a clockwork scenario giving rise …
We study the contribution of spectator massive scalar fields to the inflationary density perturbations through the universal gravitational coupling. We find that such contribution has several remarkable properties: it does not decrease as the mass of the spectator field increases; it has a significant size and cannot be turned off by any adjustable parameters; and it applies to all massive scalars existed during inflation, making the overall effect unexpectedly large. As a result, the primordial density perturbations are anomalously sensitive to the high energy physics.
We study geometrical destabilization of inflation with the aim of determining the fate of excited unstable modes. We use numerical lattice simulations to track the dynamics of both the inflaton and the spectator field. We find that geometrical destabilization is a short-lived phenomenon and that a negative feedback loop prevents field fluctuations from growing indefinitely. As a result, fields undergoing geometrical destabilization are merely shifted to a new classical configuration corresponding to a uniform value of the spectator field within a Hubble patch.
Nowadays cosmological inflation is the most accepted mechanism to explain the primordial seeds that led to the structure formation observed in the Universe. Current observations are in well agreement to initial adiabatic conditions, which imply that single-scalar-field inflation may be enough to describe the early Universe. However, there are several scenarios where the existence of more than a single field could be relevant during this period, for instance, the situation where the so-called spectator is present. Within the spectator scenario we can find the possibility that an ultra-light sca…
Spectator field models such as the curvaton scenario and the modulated reheating are attractive scenarios for the generation of the cosmic curvature perturbation, as the constraints on inflation models are relaxed. In this paper, we discuss the effect of Hubble induced masses on the dynamics of spectator fields after inflation. We pay particular attention to the Hubble induced mass by the kinetic energy of an oscillating inflaton, which is generically unsuppressed but often overlooked. In the curvaton scenario, the Hubble induced mass relaxes the constraint on the property of the inflaton and …
Temporary domain walls are produced during the bifurcation era of multi-stream inflation. The observational effects from such a domain wall to spectator field perturbations are calculated, and we expect the inflationary perturbations share similarities with the case of spectator field. A domain wall induces a preferred direction in the sky, affecting the angular distribution of perturbations. A correlated suppression of multipoles together with an alignment of multipole moments on the preferred direction are generated. Other observational aspects of multi-stream inflation, including hemispheri…
Future galaxy surveys promise to probe local primordial non-Gaussianity at unprecedented precision, $σ(f_{\rm NL}) \lesssim 1$. We study the implications for multifield inflation by considering spectator models, where inflation is driven by the inflaton field, but the primordial perturbations are (partially) generated by a second, spectator field. We perform an MCMC likelihood analysis using Planck data to study quantitative predictions for $f_{\rm NL}$ and other observables for a range of such spectator models. We show that models where the primordial perturbations are dominated by the specta…
The most conventional mechanism for gravitational waves (gw) production during inflation is the amplification of vacuum metric fluctuations. In this case the gw production can be uniquely related to the inflationary expansion rate $H$. For example, a gw detection close to the present experimental limit (tensor-to-scalar ratio $r \sim 0.1$) would indicate an inflationary expansion rate close to $10^{14} \, {\rm GeV}$. This conclusion, however, would be invalid if the observed gw originated from a different source. We construct and study one of the possible covariant formulations of the mechanis…
We revisit spectator field models including curvaton and modulated reheating scenarios, specifically focusing on their viability in the new Planck era, based on the derived expression for the spectral index in general spectator field models. Importantly, the recent Planck observations give strong preference to a red-tilted power spectrum, while the spectator field models tend to predict a scale-invariant one. This implies that, during inflation, either (i) the Hubble parameter varies significantly as in chaotic inflation, or (ii) a scalar potential for the spectator field has a relatively larg…
M-flation is an implementation of assisted inflation, in which the inflaton fields are three N_c x N_c non-abelian hermitean matrices. The model can be consistently truncated to an effectively single field inflation model, with all ``spectator'' fields fixed at the origin. We show that starting with random initial conditions for all fields the truncated sector is not a late-time attractor, but instead the system evolves towards quadratic assisted inflation with all fields mass degenerate. Demanding the energy density during inflation to be below the effective quantum gravity scale, we find tha…
The inflationary 1-loop tensor power spectrum from an excited spectator scalar field is calculated. Recent studies on primordial black holes suggest that the inflationary curvature perturbation may be huge on small scales. An enhanced curvature perturbation may arise from a drastic enhancement of spectator scalar field fluctuations. In this letter, using the in-in formalism, we calculate 1-loop quantum corrections to primordial gravitational waves by such an excited spectator field with a sharp peak in momentum space. We find scale-invariant loop corrections in this full quantum setup, in cont…
In this paper we study gauged M-flation, an inflationary model in which inflation is driven by three NxN scalar field matrices in the adjoint representation of U(N) gauge group. We focus our study on the gauged M-flation model which could be derived from the dynamics of a stack of D3-branes in appropriate background flux. The background inflationary dynamics is unaltered compared to the ungauged case of [arXiv:0903.1481[hep-th]], while the spectrum of "spectator species", the isocurvature modes, differs from the ungauged case. Presence of a large number of spectators, although irrelevant to th…
Resilience of Primordial Black Hole Formation from Inflation with a Light Spectator Field
University of Manitoba（曼尼托巴大学）；University of Winnipeg（温尼伯大学）；Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics（圣克鲁兹粒子物理研究所）；University of California, Santa Cruz（加利福尼亚大学圣克鲁兹分校）；Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory（劳伦斯伯克利国家实验室）；University of Toronto（多伦多大学）；Massachusetts Institute of Technology（麻省理工学院）
We study the statistics of the primordial power spectrum in models where massless gauge vectors are coupled to the inflaton, paying special attention to observational implications of having fundamental or effective horizons embedded in a bath of infrared fluctuations. As quantum infrared modes cross the horizon, they classicalize and build a background vector field. We find that the vector experiences a statistical precession phenomenon. Implications for primordial correlators and the interpretation thereof are considered. Firstly, we show how in general two, not only one, additional observabl…
We investigate the enhancement of the curvature perturbations in a single-field slow-roll inflation with a spectator scalar field kinetically coupled to the inflaton. The coupling term with a periodic function of inflaton triggers the exponential growth of the spectator field perturbations, which indirectly amplifies the curvature perturbations to produce a sizable abundance of primordial black holes (PBHs). This scenario is found to be insensitive to the inflationary background. We study two distinct populations of the stochastic gravitational wave background (SGWB) produced in this scenario,…
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…
Inflation due to a non-minimally coupled scalar field with a large non-minimal coupling, as first proposed by Salopek, Bardeen and Bond (SBB), is in good agreement with the observed value of the spectral index and constraints on the tensor-to-scalar ratio. Here we explore the possibility that SBB inflation represents the late stage of a Universe which emerges from an early contracting era. We present a model in which the Universe smoothly transitions from an anamorphic contracting era to late-time SBB inflation without encountering a singular bounce. This corresponds to a continuous expansion …
In this paper, we propose a model in which a spectator field non-minimally couples to an inflaton field and the power spectrum of the perturbation of the spectator field at small scales is dramatically enhanced by the sharp feature in the form of non-minimal coupling. At or after the end of inflation, the perturbation of the spectator field is converted into curvature perturbation and leads to the formation of primordial black holes (PBHs). Furthermore, for example, we consider three phenomenological models for generating PBHs with mass function peaked at $\sim10^{-12}M_\odot$ and representing…
In this work, we show the effect of the non-minimal coupling $ξϕ^2 R$ on the inflationary parameters by considering the single-field inflation and present the inflationary predictions of the appealing potential for the particle physics viewpoint: Natural Inflation, an axion-like inflaton which has a cosine-type periodic potential and the inflaton naturally emerges as a pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson with a spontaneously broken global symmetry. We present the inflationary predictions for this potential, $n_s$, $r$, and $α=\mathrm{d}n_s/\mathrm{d}\ln k$. In addition, we assume standard thermal his…
We derive the general formulae for the the scalar and tensor spectral tilts to the second order for the inflationary models with non-minimally derivative coupling without taking the high friction limit. The non-minimally kinetic coupling to Einstein tensor brings the energy scale in the inflationary models down to be sub-Planckian. In the high friction limit, the Lyth bound is modified with an extra suppression factor, so that the field excursion of the inflaton is sub-Planckian. The inflationary models with non-minimally derivative coupling are more consistent with observations in the high fr…
We consider inflation driven by an axion-like particle coupled to an SU(2) gauge sector via a Chern-Simons term. Known as chromo-natural inflation, this scenario is in tension with CMB observations. In order to remedy this fact and preserve both the symmetries and the intriguing gravitational wave phenomenology exhibited by the model, we explore the non-minimal coupling of the axion-inflaton to the Einstein tensor. We identify regions of parameter space corresponding to a viable cosmology at CMB scales. We also highlight the possibility of a large and chiral gravitational wave signal at small …
We consider the late time one-loop quantum backreaction from inflationary fluctuations of a non-minimally coupled, massless scalar field. The scalar is assumed to be a spectator field in an inflationary model with a constant principal slow roll $ε$ parameter. We regulate the infrared by matching onto a pre-inflationary radiation era. We find a large late time backreaction when the nonminimal coupling $ξ$ is negative (in which case the scalar exhibits a negative mass term during inflation). The one-loop quantum backreaction becomes significant today for moderately small non-minimal couplings, $…
One-Loop Tensor Power Spectrum from a Non-Canonical Spectator Field during Inflation
Hangzhou Institute for Advanced Study, UCAS（杭州高等研究院，中国科学院大学）；University of Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院大学）；Institute of Theoretical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院理论物理研究所）
$SU(2)$ gauge fields can generate large gravitational waves during inflation, if they are coupled to an axion which can be either the inflaton or a spectator field. The shape of the produced tensor power spectrum $\mathcal{P}_h$ depends on the form of the axion potential. We derive analytic expressions and provide general templates for $\mathcal{P}_h$ for various types of the spectator axion potential. Furthermore, we explore the detectability of the oscillatory feature, which is present in $\mathcal{P}_h$ in the case of an axion monodromy model, by possible future CMB B-mode polarization obse…
This thesis presents research exploring aspects of inflation and cosmology in the context of inflation models in which an inflaton is non-minimally coupled to the Ricci scalar, or is considered in conjunction with a term quadratic in the Ricci scalar. We consider a $ϕ^{2}$ Palatini inflation model in $R^{2}$ gravity and investigate whether this model can overcome some of the problems of the original $ϕ^{2}$ chaotic inflation model. We investigate the compatibility of this model with the observed CMB when treated as an effective theory of inflation in quantum gravity by examining the constraint…
We study the inflation in a model with a Gauss-Bonnet term which is non-minimally coupled to a DBI field. We study the spectrum of the primordial perturbations in detail. The non-Gaussianity of this model is considered and the amplitude of the non-Gaussianity is studied in both the equilateral and orthogonal configurations. By taking various functions of the DBI field, inflaton potential and the Gauss-Bonnet coupling term, we test the model with observational data and find some constraints on the Gauss-Bonnet coupling parameter.
We show that the dynamics of the Higgs field during inflation is not affected by metric fluctuations if the Higgs is an energetically subdominant light spectator. For Standard Model parameters we find that couplings between Higgs and metric fluctuations are suppressed by $\mathcal{O}(10^{-7})$. They are negligible compared to both pure Higgs terms in the effective potential and the unavoidable non-minimal Higgs coupling to background scalar curvature. The question of the electroweak vacuum instability during high energy scale inflation can therefore be studied consistently using the Jordan fra…
The interplay between non-minimally coupled scalar fields and a kinetic-dominated era following the end of inflation triggers the spontaneous symmetry breaking of internal symmetries and the subsequent evolution of the fields towards large expectation values. We present here a detailed analysis of the associated dynamics in quintessential inflation scenarios involving a non-minimally coupled $Z_2$-symmetric spectator field. By analytically following the evolution of the spectator field fluctuations at early times, we characterize the formation of classical, homogeneous and spatially-localized …
We study post-inflationary evolution in $α$-attractor T-models of inflation. We consider the dynamics of both scalar fields present in these models: the inflaton and the spectator, as a negative field-space curvature may lead to geometrical destabilization of the spectator. We perform state-of-the-art lattice simulations with a dedicated numerical code optimized for those models. We corroborate earlier findings that the perturbations of the spectator field are much more unstable than the perturbations of the inflaton field, so the dynamics of early stages of preheating is dominated by the evol…
