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Title: False vacuum energy dominated inflation with large r and the importance of κ{sub s}

Journal Article · · Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
; ; ;  [1]
  1. Department of Physics, University of Basel, Klingelbergstr. 82, Basel, CH-4056 Switzerland (Switzerland)

We investigate to which extent and under which circumstances false vacuum energy (V{sub 0}) dominated slow-roll inflation is compatible with a large tensor-to-scalar ratio r = O(0.1), as indicated by the recent BICEP2 measurement. With V{sub 0} we refer to a constant contribution to the inflaton potential, present before a phase transition takes place and absent in the true vacuum of the theory, like e.g. in hybrid inflation. Based on model-independent considerations, we derive an upper bound on the possible amount of V{sub 0} domination and highlight the importance of higher-order runnings of the scalar spectral index (beyond α{sub s}) in order to realise scenarios of V{sub 0} dominated inflation. We study the conditions for V{sub 0} domination explicitly with an inflaton potential reconstruction around the inflaton field value 50 e-folds before the end of inflation, taking into account the present observational data. To this end, we provide the up-to-date parameter constraints within ΛCDM + r + α{sub s} + κ{sub s} using the cosmological parameter estimation code Monte Python together with the Boltzmann code CLASS.

OSTI ID:
22375837
Journal Information:
Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Vol. 2014, Issue 10; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1475-7516
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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