2017/07/31 by Ali Masoumi, Alexander Vilenkin, Masaki Yamada · 15 citations
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Brownian motion #Complex Systems and Time Series Analysis #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Energy landscape #False vacuum #Field (mathematics) #Gaussian #Geometry #Inflation (cosmology) #Inflaton #Inflection point #Mathematics #Non-Gaussianity #Physics #Planck #Quantum mechanics #Quantum tunnelling #Saddle #Saddle point #Slow roll #Statistical physics #Stochastic processes and financial applications #Theoretical physics #gr-qc #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/1475-7516/2017/12/035
published in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics 2017(12), 035 (Institute of Physics) · 25 pages, 5 figures; (v2) minor changes, Fig. 5 updated
openalex publication_date 2017/12/20 · arxiv created 2018/02/12 · arxiv updated 2018/02/13 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We investigate slow-roll inflation in a multi-field random Gaussian landscape. The landscape is assumed to be small-field, with a correlation length much smaller than the Planck scale. Inflation then typically occurs in small patches of the landscape, localized near inflection or saddle points. We find that the inflationary track is typically close to a straight line in the field space, and the statistical properties of inflation are similar to those in a one-dimensional landscape. This picture of multi-field inflation is rather different from that suggested by the Dyson Brownian motion model; we discuss the reasons for this difference. We also discuss tunneling from inflating false vacua to the neighborhood of inflection and saddle points and show that the tunneling endpoints tend to concentrate along the flat direction in the landscape.