Reconstructing a general inflationary action
- Department of Astronomy, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853 (United States)
- Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706 (United States)
If inflation is to be considered in an unbiased way, as possibly originating from one of a wide range of underlying theories, then observations need not be simply applied to reconstructing the inflaton potential V({phi}) or a specific kinetic term, as in Dirac-Born-Infeld inflation, but rather to reconstruct the inflationary action in its entirety. We discuss the constraints that can be placed on a general single field action from measurements of the primordial scalar and tensor fluctuation power spectra and non-Gaussianities. The analytic form of the action that is consistent with data turns out to be surprisingly simple and easy to categorize. We also present the flow equation formalism for reconstructing a general inflationary Lagrangian L(X,{phi}), with X=(1/2){partial_derivative}{sub {mu}}{phi}{partial_derivative}{sup {mu}}{phi}, in a general gauge, that reduces to canonical and DBI inflation in the specific gauge L{sub X}=c{sub s}{sup -1}.
- OSTI ID:
- 21250337
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review. D, Particles Fields, Vol. 78, Issue 2; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.78.023517; (c) 2008 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0556-2821
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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