Hilltop inflation

2005/02/28 by Lotfi Boubekeur, David H. Lyth, David. H. Lyth · 19 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Economics #Eternal inflation #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Horizon #Inflation (cosmology) #Inflaton #Keynesian economics #Observable #Observable universe #Physics #Quantum mechanics #Theoretical physics #Universe #astro-ph #gr-qc #hep-ph #hep-th

paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/1475-7516/2005/07/010

published as JCAP 0507 (2005) 010 · Latex, 20 pages, 5 figures. Minor changes, references added

arxiv created 2005/03/02 · openalex publication_date 2005/07/19 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2020/07/02 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06

Abstract

We study ‘hilltop’ inflation, in which inflation takes place near a maximum of the potential. Viewed as a model of inflation after the observable Universe leaves the horizon (observable inflation), hilltop inflation is rather generic. If the potential steepens monotonically, observable hilltop inflation gives a tiny tensor fraction . The usual F- and D-term models may easily be transmuted to hilltop models by Planck-suppressed terms, making them more natural. The only commonly considered model of observable inflation which is definitely not hilltop is tree-level hybrid inflation. Viewed instead as an initial condition, we explain that hilltop inflation is more generic than seems to have been previously recognized, adding thereby to the credibility of the idea that eternal inflation provides the pre-inflationary initial condition.

Citations

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• More varieties of hybrid inflation
• Extranatural Inflation
• Racetrack Inflation
• Chaotic inflation

Cited by

• Constant-Roll Inflation
• Non-minimal M-flation
• M-flation: inflation from matrix valued scalar fields
• Hill crossing during preheating after hilltop inflation
• Warping the Weak Gravity Conjecture
• Higgs inflation with loop corrections in the Palatini formulation
• Quantum phase of inflation
• Red spectral tilt and observable gravity waves in shifted hybrid inflation
• Inflation models and observation
• An extended matter bounce scenario: current status and challenges
• Non-minimal coupling in light of ACT
• Phenomenological approaches of inflation and their equivalence
• On chromonatural inflation in string theory
• Impact of other scalar fields on oscillons after hilltop inflation
• Cosmological attractors and initial conditions for inflation
• The Higgs mass from a string-theoretic perspective
• Eternal inflation in a dissipative and radiation environment: Heated demise of eternity
• Initial conditions for small-field inflation
• New universal attractor in nonminimally coupled gravity: Linear inflation