Flows into inflation: An effective field theory approach
Name
PhysRevD.98.063515.pdf
Size
1.82 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
dc19a14f655b96affc6a9d3b9a39a554
Author(s)
Azhar, Feraz
Kaiser, David I
Date Issued
September 2018
Journal
Physical Review D
Publisher
American Physical Society
Citation
Azhar, Feraz and David I. Kaiser. "Flows into inflation: An effective field theory approach." Physical Review D 98, 6 (September 2018): 063515 © 2018 American Physical Society
Version
Final published version
Abstract
We analyze the flow into inflation for generic “single-clock” systems, by combining an effective field theory approach with a dynamical-systems analysis. In this approach, we construct an expansion for the potential-like term in the effective action as a function of time, rather than specifying a particular functional dependence on a scalar field. We may then identify fixed points in the effective phase space for such systems, order by order, as various constraints are placed on the Mth time derivative of the potential-like function. For relatively simple systems, we find significant probability for the background spacetime to flow into an inflationary state and for inflation to persist for at least 60 e-folds. Moreover, for systems that are compatible with single-scalar-field realizations, we find a single, universal functional form for the effective potential, V(ϕ), which is similar to the well-studied potential for power-law inflation. We discuss the compatibility of such dynamical systems with observational constraints.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
Terms of Use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.98.063515
