Negative running can prevent eternal inflation
- Dept. of Physics, University at Buffalo, the State University of New York, Buffalo, NY 14260-1500 (United States)
- Department of Physics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 (United States)
Current data from the Planck satellite and the BICEP2 telescope favor, at around the 2 σ level, negative running of the spectral index of curvature perturbations from inflation. We show that for negative running α < 0, the curvature perturbation amplitude has a maximum on scales larger than our current horizon size. A condition for the absence of eternal inflation is that the curvature perturbation amplitude always remain below unity on superhorizon scales. For current bounds on n{sub S} from Planck, this corresponds to an upper bound of the running α < −9 × 10{sup −5}, so that even tiny running of the scalar spectral index is sufficient to prevent eternal inflation from occurring, as long as the running remains negative on scales outside the horizon. In single-field inflation models, negative running is associated with a finite duration of inflation: we show that eternal inflation may not occur even in cases where inflation lasts as long as 10{sup 4} e-folds.
- OSTI ID:
- 22382008
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Vol. 2015, Issue 01; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1475-7516
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Large Scale Power and Running Spectral Index in New Old Inflation
Planck 2015 results: XX. Constraints on inflation