On the Tensor/Scalar Ratio in Inflation with UV Cutoff

Abstract

Anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB) originates from both tensor and scalar perturbations. To study the characteristics of each of these two kinds of perturbations, one has to determine the contribution of each to the anisotropy of CMB. For example, the ratio of the power spectra of tensor/scalar perturbations can be used to tighten bounds on the scalar spectral index. We investigate here the implications for the tensor/scalar ratio of the recent discovery (noted in astro-ph/0410139) that the introduction of a minimal length cutoff in the structure of spacetime does not leave boundary terms invariant. Such a cutoff introduces an ambiguity in the choice of action for tensor and scalar perturbations, which in turn can affect this ratio. We numerically solve for both tensor and scalar mode equations in a near-de-sitter background and explicitly find the cutoff dependence of the tensor/scalar ratio during inflation.

19 pages, 14 figures, to appear in Nucl. Phys. B; v4: typos corrected, matched with the published version

References in corpus (1)

• Minimum Length Cutoff in Inflation and Uniqueness of the Action

Cited by in corpus (10)

• Challenges for $\Lambda$CDM: An update
• A Note on Calm Excited States of Inflation
• Trans-Planckian censorship, inflation and excited initial states for perturbations
• Cosmology with minimal length uncertainty relations
• Exit from Inflation with a First-Order Phase Transition and a Gravitational Wave Blast
• Extracting New Physics from the CMB
• The Effects of Minimal Length, Maximal Momentum and Minimal Momentum in Entropic Force
• Supersymmetric Field Theory Based on Generalized Uncertainty Principle
• Scalar field inflation driven by a modification of the Heisenberg algebra
• Signatures of Planck-scale interactions in the cosmic microwave background?