2009/12/31 by Arjun Berera, Raghavan Rangarajan
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Classical mechanics #Context (archaeology) #Cosmology #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Dark energy #Geometry #Horizon #Inflation (cosmology) #Inflaton #Mathematics #Physics #Quantum #Quantum electrodynamics #Quantum fluctuation #Quantum mechanics #Quintessence #Scalar (mathematics) #Scalar field #Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics #Theoretical physics #astro-ph.CO
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.87.043514
published as Phys. Rev. D 87, 043514 (2013) · 28 pages, Extensive changes, including application of results to curvaton models, version published in PRD
openalex publication_date 2013/02/05 · arxiv created 2013/03/05 · arxiv updated 2013/03/06 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Inflation models can have an early phase of inflation where the evolution of the inflaton is driven by quantum fluctuations before entering the phase driven by the slope of the scalar field potential. For a Coleman-Weinberg potential this quantum phase lasts 107--8 e-foldings. A long period of fluctuation driven growth of the inflation field can possibly take the inflaton past \ensuremathφ*, the value of the field where our current horizon scale crosses the horizon; alternatively, even if the field does not cross \ensuremathφ*, the inflaton could have high kinetic energy at the end of this phase. Therefore, we study these issues in the context of different models of inflation. In scenarios where cosmological relevant scales leave during the quantum phase, we obtain large curvature perturbations of O(10). We also apply our results to quadratic curvaton models and to quintessence models. In curvaton models we find that inflation must last longer than required to solve the horizon problem, that the curvaton models are incompatible with small field inflation models, and that there may be too large non-Gaussianity. A new phase of thermal fluctuation driven inflation is proposed, in which during inflation the inflaton evolution is governed by fluctuations from a sustained thermal radiation bath rather than by a scalar field potential.