Observational constraints on inflationary potentials within the quantum collapse framework

Abstract

The physical mechanism responsible for the emergence of primordial cosmic seeds from a perfect isotropic and homogeneous Universe has not been fully addressed in standard cosmic inflation. To handle this shortcoming, D. Sudarsky et al have developed a proposal: the self-induced collapse hypothesis. In this scheme, the objective collapse of the inflaton's wave function generates the inhomogeneity and anisotropy at all scales. In this paper we analyze the viability of a set of inflationary potentials in both the context of the collapse proposal and within the standard inflationary framework. For this, we perform a statistical analysis using recent CMB and BAO data to obtain the prediction for the scalar spectral index $n_s$ in the context of a particular collapse model: the Wigner scheme. The predicted $n_s$ and the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$ in terms of the slow roll parameters is different between the collapse scheme and the standard inflationary model. For each potential considered we compare the prediction of $n_s$ and $r$ with the limits established by observational data in both pictures. The result of our analysis shows in most cases a difference in the inflationary potentials allowed by the observational limits in both frameworks. In particular, in the standard approach the more concave a potential is, the more is favored by the data. On the other hand, in the Wigner scheme, the data favors equally all type of concave potentials, including those at the border between convex and concave families.

23 pages, 11 figures

References in corpus (49)

• Efficient Computation of CMB anisotropies in closed FRW models
• Cosmological parameters from CMB and other data: a Monte-Carlo approach
• The 6dF Galaxy Survey: Baryon Acoustic Oscillations and the Local Hubble Constant
• The clustering of galaxies in the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: Baryon Acoustic Oscillations in the Data Release 10 and 11 galaxy samples
• The Clustering of the SDSS DR7 Main Galaxy Sample I: A 4 per cent Distance Measure at z=0.15
• Encyclopaedia Inflationaris
• A Joint Analysis of BICEP2/Keck Array and Planck Data
• Semiclassicality and Decoherence of Cosmological Perturbations
• Horizon crossing and inflation with large η
• Inflation and squeezed quantum states
• First CMB Constraints on the Inflationary Reheating Temperature
• Emergent Geometry and Gravity from Matrix Models: an Introduction
• Is Quantum Gravity Necessary?
• Quantum Graphity: a model of emergent locality
• Observing the Inflationary Reheating
• Quantum-to-classical Transition of Cosmological Perturbations for Non-vacuum Initial States
• Pointer states for primordial fluctuations in inflationary cosmology
• On the quantum origin of the seeds of cosmic structure
• Shortcomings in the Understanding of Why Cosmological Perturbations Look Classical
• Cosmological Inflation and the Quantum Measurement Problem
• On the Decoherence of Primordial Fluctuations During Inflation
• CSL Wave Function Collapse Model as a Mechanism for the Emergence of Cosmological Asymmetries in Inflation
• Why Eppley and Hannah's Experiment Isn't
• Measurement Analysis and Quantum Gravity
• Physical Theories, Eternal Inflation, and Quantum Universe
• Observational constraints on quantum decoherence during inflation
• Phenomenological analysis of quantum collapse as source of the seeds of cosmic structure
• Towards a formal description of the collapse approach to the inflationary origin of the seeds of cosmic structure
• Cosmological constraints on non-standard inflationary quantum collapse models
• Non Gaussianities from Quantum Decoherence during Inflation
• Best Unbiased Estimates for the Microwave Background Anisotropies
• Quantum origin of the primordial fluctuation spectrum and its statistics
• The slow roll condition and the amplitude of the primordial spectrum of cosmic fluctuations: Contrasts and similarities of standard account and the "collapse scheme"
• Classicalization of inflationary perturbations by collapse models in the light of BICEP2
• Multiple quantum collapse of the inflaton field and its implications on the birth of cosmic structure
• The collapse of the wave function in the joint metric-matter quantization for inflation
• Emergence of inflationary perturbations in the CSL model
• Generally covariant dynamical reduction models and the Hadamard condition
• Reassessing the link between B-modes and inflation
• Expectation of primordial gravity waves generated during inflation
• Inflation without quantum gravity
• Constraining quantum collapse inflationary models with CMB data
• Primordial gravitational waves and the collapse of the wave function
• Constraining quantum collapse inflationary models with current data: The semiclassical approach
• Inflation including collapse of the wave function: The quasi-de Sitter case
• Semiclassical Self Consistent Treatment of the Emergence of Seeds of Cosmic Structure. The second order construction
• Inflation and the Measurement Problem
• On the Entropy and the Density Matrix of Cosmological Perturbations
• Inflationary gravitational waves in collapse scheme models

Cited by in corpus (2)

• A cosmic shadow on CSL
• Dynamical Analysis of Attractor Behavior in Constant Roll Inflation