What do WMAP and SDSS really tell about inflation?

Abstract

We derive new constraints on the Hubble function H(phi) and subsequently on the inflationary potential V(phi) from WMAP 3-year data combined with the Sloan Luminous Red Galaxy survey (SDSS-LRG), using a new methodology which appears to be more generic, conservative and model-independent than in most of the recent literature, since it depends neither on the slow-roll approximation, nor on any extrapolation scheme for the potential beyond the observable e-fold range, nor on additional assumptions about initial conditions for the inflaton velocity. This last feature represents the main improvement of this work, and is made possible by the reconstruction of H(phi) prior to V(phi). Our results only rely on the assumption that within the observable range, corresponding to ~ 10 e-folds, inflation is not interrupted and the function H(phi) is smooth enough for being Taylor-expanded at order one, two or three. We conclude that the variety of potentials allowed by the data is still large. However, it is clear that the first two slow-roll parameters are really small while the validity of the slow-roll expansion beyond them is not established.

5 pages, 3 figures. Numerical module available at http://wwwlapp.in2p3.fr/~valkenbu/inflationH/ . References added, discussion expanded

References in corpus (20)

• Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Three Year Results: Implications for Cosmology
• Cosmological parameters from CMB and other data: a Monte-Carlo approach
• Cosmological Constraints from the SDSS Luminous Red Galaxies
• Three Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Polarization Analysis
• Three-Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Temperature Analysis
• Inflation after WMAP3: Confronting the Slow-Roll and Exact Power Spectra with CMB Data
• Inflation model constraints from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe three-year data
• Three-Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Beam Profiles, Data Processing, Radiometer Characterization and Systematic Error Limits
• Inflation and WMAP three year data: Features have a Future!
• Recovering the Inflationary Potential and Primordial Power Spectrum With a Slow Roll Prior: Methodology and Application to WMAP 3 Year Data
• Slow Roll Reconstruction: Constraints on Inflation from the 3 Year WMAP Dataset
• Inflaton field potential producing the exactly flat spectrum of adiabatic perturbations
• Inflationary Potential Reconstruction for a WMAP Running Power Spectrum
• New constraints on the observable inflaton potential from WMAP and SDSS
• Constraints on the Inflationary Expansion from Three Year WMAP, small scale CMB anisotropies and Large Scale Structure Data Sets
• What happens when the inflaton stops during inflation
• Limits on primordial power spectrum resolution: An inflationary flow analysis
• On the accuracy of slow-roll inflation given current observational constraints
• Single Field Inflation models allowed and ruled out by the three years WMAP data
• Constraining hybrid inflation models with WMAP three-year results

Cited by in corpus (32)

• Planck 2013 results. XXII. Constraints on inflation
• Oscillations in the CMB from Axion Monodromy Inflation
• Neutrino masses and cosmology with Lyman-alpha forest power spectrum
• Bayesian Analysis of Inflation II: Model Selection and Constraints on Reheating
• New Universal Local Feature in the Inflationary Perturbation Spectrum
• Bayesian Analysis of Inflation: Parameter Estimation for Single Field Models
• Is a step in the primordial spectral index favored by CMB data ?
• Primordial Black Holes, Eternal Inflation, and the Inflationary Parameter Space after WMAP5
• The Knotted Sky II: Does BICEP2 require a nontrivial primordial power spectrum?
• Predictions of just-enough inflation
• Bayesian inflationary reconstructions from Planck 2018 data
• Bayesian Analysis of Inflation III: Slow Roll Reconstruction Using Model Selection
• Band-power reconstruction of the primordial fluctuation spectrum by the maximum likelihood reconstruction method
• Single-field inflation constraints from CMB and SDSS data
• Observational constraints on K-inflation models
• Large curvature perturbations near horizon crossing in single-field inflation models
• Reconstruction of the primordial fluctuation spectrum from the five-year WMAP data by the cosmic inversion method with band-power decorrelation analysis
• Cosmological constraints on general, single field inflation
• How to constrain inflationary parameter space with minimal priors
• Constraints from primordial black hole formation at the end of inflation
• Study of the preheating phase of chaotic inflation
• Inflationary Potential from 21 cm Tomography and Planck
• Uncorrelated estimates of the primordial power spectrum
• Cornering Extended Starobinsky Inflation with CMB and SKA
• The Impact of Prior Assumptions on Bayesian Estimates of Inflation Parameters and the Expected Gravitational Waves Signal from Inflation
• Non-Gaussian signatures of general inflationary trajectories
• Reconstructing Single Field Inflationary Actions From CMBR Data
• Probing the primordial power spectra with inflationary priors
• Reconstruction of $\alpha$-attractor supergravity models of inflation
• An updated dark energy view of inflation
• From WMAP to Planck: Exact reconstruction of 4- and 5-dimensional inflationary potential from high precision CMB measurements
• Probing the Inflaton Potential with SKA