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Title: The best inflationary models after Planck

Journal Article · · Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
;  [1];  [2];  [3]
  1. Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, UMR 7095-CNRS, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, 98bis boulevard Arago, 75014 Paris (France)
  2. Centre for Cosmology, Particle Physics and Phenomenology, Institute of Mathematics and Physics, Louvain University, 2 Chemin du Cyclotron, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium)
  3. Imperial College London, Astrophysics and Imperial Centre for Inference and Cosmology, Blackett Laboratory, Prince Consort Road, London SW7 2AZ (United Kingdom)

We compute the Bayesian evidence and complexity of 193 slow-roll single-field models of inflation using the Planck 2013 Cosmic Microwave Background data, with the aim of establishing which models are favoured from a Bayesian perspective. Our calculations employ a new numerical pipeline interfacing an inflationary effective likelihood with the slow-roll library ASPIC and the nested sampling algorithm MultiNest. The models considered represent a complete and systematic scan of the entire landscape of inflationary scenarios proposed so far. Our analysis singles out the most probable models (from an Occam's razor point of view) that are compatible with Planck data, while ruling out with very strong evidence 34% of the models considered. We identify 26% of the models that are favoured by the Bayesian evidence, corresponding to 15 different potential shapes. If the Bayesian complexity is included in the analysis, only 9% of the models are preferred, corresponding to only 9 different potential shapes. These shapes are all of the plateau type.

OSTI ID:
22370615
Journal Information:
Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Vol. 2014, Issue 03; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1475-7516
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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