Ricci Subtraction for Cosmological Coleman-Weinberg Potentials

Abstract

We reconsider the fine-tuning problem of scalar-driven inflation arising from the need to couple the inflaton to ordinary matter in order to make reheating efficient. Quantum fluctuations of this matter induce Coleman-Weinberg corrections to the inflaton potential, depending (for de Sitter background) in a complex way on the ratio of the inflaton to the Hubble parameter. These corrections are not Planck-suppressed and cannot be completely subtracted because they are not even local for a general geometry. A previous study showed that it is not satisfactory to subtract a local function of just the inflaton and the {\it initial} Hubble parameter. This paper examines the other allowed possibility of subtracting a local function of the inflaton and the Ricci scalar. The problem in this case is that the new, scalar degree of freedom induced by the subtraction causes inflation to end almost instantly.

17 pages, 4 figures, uses LaTeX2e. A follow-up to arXiv:1506.07306 and arXiv:1806.02533. Minor revisions made for publication

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• Stochastic Inflationary Scalar Electrodynamics
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Cited by in corpus (9)

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• Inflaton Effective Potential from Photons for General $\epsilon$
• When tadpoles matter: One-loop corrections for spectator Higgs in inflation
• Inflaton Effective Potential from Fermions for General $\epsilon$
• Photon propagator for inflation in the general covariant gauge
• Reheating with Effective Potentials
• K-Essence Induced by Derivative Couplings of the Inflaton