Revisiting a pre-inflationary radiation era and its effect on the CMB power spectrum

Abstract

We revisit the scenario where inflation is preceded by a radiation era by considering that the inflaton too could have been in thermal equilibrium early in the radiation era. Hence we take into account not only the effect of a pre-inflationary era on the inflaton mode functions but also that of a frozen thermal distribution of inflaton quanta. We initially discuss in detail the issues relevant to our scenario of a pre-inflationary radiation dominated era and then obtain the scalar power spectrum for this scenario. We find that the power spectrum is free from infrared divergences. We then use the WMAP and Planck data to determine the constraints on the inflaton comoving `temperature' and on the duration of inflation. We find that the best fit value of the duration of inflation is less than 1 e-folding more than what is required to solve cosmological problems, while only an upper bound on the inflaton temperature can be obtained.

arXiv comment29 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables, Matches with the published version

References in corpus (47)

• First Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Determination of Cosmological Parameters
• Planck 2013 results. XVI. Cosmological parameters
• Nine-Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Cosmological Parameter Results
• Efficient Computation of CMB anisotropies in closed FRW models
• Cosmological parameters from CMB and other data: a Monte-Carlo approach
• A Line of Sight Approach to Cosmic Microwave Background Anisotropies
• Planck 2013 results. XXII. Constraints on inflation
• Planck 2013 results. XV. CMB power spectra and likelihood
• First Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Parameter Estimation Methodology
• Suppressing the lower Multipoles in the CMB Anisotropies
• Observational Consequences of a Landscape
• Is the Low CMB Quadrupole a Signature of Spatial Curvature?
• The Measure Problem in Cosmology
• Suppressing CMB Quadrupole with a Bounce from Contracting Phase to Inflation
• Ellipsoidal Universe Can Solve The CMB Quadrupole Problem
• 2-Point Correlations in the COBE DMR 4-Year Anisotropy Maps
• Does the small CMB quadrupole moment suggest new physics?
• A Low CMB Quadrupole from Dark Energy Isocurvature Perturbations
• Punctuated inflation and the low CMB multipoles
• Creation of a Compact Topologically Nontrivial Inflationary Universe
• Double Inflation and the Low CMB Quadrupole
• Disformal Inflation
• WMAP data and the curvature of space
• The tensor-to-scalar ratio in punctuated inflation
• The pre-inflationary vacuum in the cosmic microwave background
• Extending the WMAP Bound on the Size of the Universe
• Squeezed Thermal Vacuum and the Maximum Scale for Inflation
• Just enough inflation: power spectrum modifications at large scales
• Enhanced polarization of CMB from thermal gravitational waves
• Non-isotropy in the CMB power spectrum in single field inflation
• Temperature of the inflaton and duration of inflation from WMAP data
• Correlated Isocurvature Fluctuation in Quintessence and Suppressed CMB Anisotropies at Low Multipoles
• Effects of a pre-inflation radiation-dominated epoch to CMB anisotropy
• Inflation model with lower multipoles of the CMB suppressed
• On infrared and ultraviolet divergences of cosmological perturbations
• Backreaction of a massless minimally coupled scalar field from inflationary quantum fluctuations
• Cosmic microwave background constraints on multi-connected spherical spaces
• The large scale CMB cut-off and the tensor-to-scalar ratio
• Late-time backreaction from inflationary fluctuations of a non-minimally coupled massless scalar
• Detecting relics of a thermal gravitational wave background in the early Universe
• Suppressing CMB low multipoles with ISW effect
• Quantum backreaction in evolving FLRW spacetimes
• Regulating the infrared by mode matching: A massless scalar in expanding spaces with constant deceleration
• Effect of the length of inflation on angular TT and TE power spectra in power-law inflation
• Leakage of power from dipole to higher multipoles due to non-symmetric WMAP beam
• Initial condition of scalar perturbation in inflation
• Modelling the WMAP large-angle anomalies as an effect of a local density inhomogeneity

Cited by in corpus (19)

• Universal Upper Bound on the Inflationary Energy Scale from the Trans-Planckian Censorship Conjecture
• Primordial perturbations with pre-inflationary bounce
• Quantum correlations for the metric
• Cosmic fluctuations from quantum effective action
• Warm bounce in loop quantum cosmology and the prediction for the duration of inflation
• Explaining low l anomalies in the CMB power spectrum with resonant superstring excitations during inflation
• Possible Evidence for Planck-Scale Resonant Particle Production during Inflation from the CMB Power Spectrum
• Bonus Properties of States of Low Energy
• Constraints on just enough inflation preceded by a thermal era
• Thermal gravitational-wave background in the general pre-inflationary scenario
• Semiclassical predictions regarding a pre-inflationary era and its effects on the power spectrum
• Thermal Loop Effects on Large-Scale Curvature Perturbation in the Higgs Inflation
• On primordial equation of state transitions
• A solution to the initial condition problems of inflation : NATON
• Low Energy States and CPT invariance at the Big Bang
• Lowering tensor-to-scalar ratio by pre-inflationary dynamics
• Argument for the radiation-dominated behavior of matter fields in the preinflationary era
• Setting Initial Conditions for Inflation with Reaction-Diffusion Equation
• A plausible solution to the problem of initial conditions for inflation