2008/04/30 by Steven Weinberg · 3 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #hep-th #astro-ph #gr-qc
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.77.123541
published as Phys.Rev.D77:123541,2008 · 14 pages, Latex, references added and minor additions and corrections made
arxiv created 2008/05/15 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01
The methods of effective field theory are used to study generic theories of inflation with a single inflaton field. For scalar modes, the leading corrections to the \cal R correlation function are found to be purely of the k-inflation type. For tensor modes the leading corrections to the correlation function arise from terms in the action that are quadratic in the curvature, including a parity-violating term that makes the propagation of these modes depend on their helicity. These methods are also briefly applied to non-generic theories of inflation with an extra shift symmetry, as in so-called ghost inflation.