2008/05/31 by Hiranya V. Peiris, Hiranya V Peiris, Richard Easther · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Amplitude #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #Inflation (cosmology) #Inflationary epoch #Noncommutative and Quantum Gravity Theories #Parameter space #Primordial black hole #Prior probability #Scalar (mathematics) #Scalar field #Slow roll #astro-ph #hep-ph #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/1475-7516/2008/07/024
published as JCAP 0807:024,2008 · v2: version published in JCAP. Minor clarifications and references added
openalex publication_date 2008/07/30 · arxiv created 2008/09/16 · arxiv updated 2014/11/18 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We consider constraints on inflation driven by a single, minimally coupled scalar field in the light of the WMAP5 (WMAP: Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe) data set, as well as ACBAR (Arcminute Cosmology Bolometer Array Receiver) and the SuperNova Legacy Survey. We use the slow roll reconstruction algorithm to derive optimal constraints on the inflationary parameter space. The scale dependence in the slope of the scalar spectrum permitted by WMAP5 is large enough to lead to viable models where the small scale perturbations have a substantial amplitude when extrapolated to the end of inflation. We find that excluding parameter values which would cause the overproduction of primordial black holes or even the onset of eternal inflation leads to potentially significant constraints on the slow roll parameters. Finally, we present a more sophisticated approach to including priors based on the total duration of inflation, and discuss the resulting restrictions on the inflationary parameter space.