Trapped Inflation
arXiv:0902.1006 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.80.063533
Abstract
We analyze a distinctive mechanism for inflation in which particle production slows down a scalar field on a steep potential, and show how it descends from angular moduli in string compactifications. The analysis of density perturbations -- taking into account the integrated effect of the produced particles and their quantum fluctuations -- requires somewhat new techniques that we develop. We then determine the conditions for this effect to produce sixty e-foldings of inflation with the correct amplitude of density perturbations at the Gaussian level, and show that these requirements can be straightforwardly satisfied. Finally, we estimate the amplitude of the non-Gaussianity in the power spectrum and find a significant equilateral contribution.
32 pages, 3 figures
References in corpus (14)
- Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Three Year Results: Implications for Cosmology
- Five-Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Cosmological Interpretation
- The Effective Field Theory of Inflation
- Observational Signatures and Non-Gaussianities of General Single Field Inflation
- Monodromy in the CMB: Gravity Waves and String Inflation
- Warm Inflation and its Microphysical Basis
- Primordial perturbations and non-Gaussianities in DBI and general multi-field inflation
- On the consistency relation of the 3-point function in single field inflation
- Simple de Sitter Solutions
- Limits on f_NL parameters from WMAP 3yr data
- Cosmological Fluctuations from Infra-Red Cascading During Inflation
- Minimal Simple de Sitter Solutions
- Effects of particle production during inflation
- Reheating in a Brane Monodromy Inflation Model