2007/02/07 by David Wands · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Eternal inflation #Field (mathematics) #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Inflation (cosmology) #Inflationary epoch #Inflaton #Primordial fluctuations #Scalar field #Simple (philosophy) #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1007/978-3-540-74353-8_8
published as Lect.NotesPhys.738:275-304,2008 · 27 pages, no figures. To appear in proceedings of 22nd IAP Colloquium, Inflation +25, Paris, June 2006
arxiv created 2007/02/07 · openalex publication_date 2007/10/11 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Inflation offers a simple model for very early evolution of our Universe and the origin of primordial perturbations on large scales. Over the last 25 years we have become familiar with the predictions of single-field models, but inflation with more than one light scalar field can alter preconceptions about the inflationary dynamics and our predictions for the primordial perturbations. I will discuss how future observational data could distinguish between inflation driven by one field, or many fields. As an example, I briefly review the curvaton as an alternative to the inflaton scenario for the origin of structure.