Inflationary Butterfly Effect: Non-perturbative Dynamics From Small-Scale Features

Abstract

For the first time, we investigate the non-perturbative dynamics of single field inflation with a departure from slow-roll. Using simulations, we find that oscillatory features in the potential can drastically alter the course of inflation, with major phenomenological implications. In certain cases, the entire Universe gets trapped in a forever inflating de Sitter state. In others, only some regions get stuck in a false vacuum, offering an alternative channel for primordial black hole formation. Analogous to the flap of a butterfly, these results show that small-scale phenomena can have profound consequences on the evolution of the entire Universe. This demonstrates the necessity of a non-perturbative approach in the exploration of the small-scale physics of inflation, particularly in the regime relevant for gravitational-wave astronomy.

version published in PRL, minor modifications, 5 pages + Supplemental Material, 3 figures ; animations can be found at the following link https://github.com/caravangelo/Inflationary-Butterfly.git

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• Non-Gaussianities and Primordial Black Holes
• Generating large primordial fluctuations in single-field inflation for PBH formation
• Dip and non-linearity in the curvature perturbation from inflation with a transient non-slow-roll stage
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• Constraints on the Sharpness of the Curvature Power Spectrum
• Inflationary relics from an Ultra-Slow-Roll plateau
• Potential Surge Preheating: enhanced resonance from potential features
• Stochastic Inflation with Interacting Noises
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• Probing black holes via quasinormal modes in a dark energy-induced dark matter
• Spectrum of third-order tensor perturbations induced by excited scalar fields
• Nonlinear Lattice Framework for Inflation: Bridging stochastic inflation and the $\delta N$ formalism