Reconstructing the inflaton potential: In principle and in practice

Journal Article · Wed Sep 15 04:00:00 UTC 1993 · Physical Review, D (Particles Fields); (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.48.2529· OSTI ID:6026437

Copeland, E J ^[1]; Kolb, E W ^[2]; Liddle, A R ^[3]; Lidsey, J E ^[4]

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1. School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Sussex, Brighton BN19QH (United Kingdom)
2. NASA/Fermilab Astrophysics Center, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Batavia, Illinois 60510 (United States) Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Enrico Fermi Institute, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637 (United States)
3. Astronomy Centre, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Sussex, Brighton BN19QH (United Kingdom)
4. Astronomy Unit, School of Mathematical Sciences, Queen Mary and Westfield College, Mile End Road, London E14NS (United Kingdom) NASA/Fermilab Astrophysics Center, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Batavia, Illinois 60510 (United States)

Generalizing the original work by Hodges and Blumenthal, we outline a formalism which allows one, [ital in] [ital principle], to reconstruct the potential of the inflaton field from knowledge of the tensor gravitational wave spectrum or the scalar density fluctuation spectrum, with special emphasis on the importance of the tensor spectrum. We provide some illustrative examples of such reconstruction. We then discuss in some detail the question of whether one can use real observations to carry out this procedure. We conclude that, [ital practice], a full reconstruction of the functional form of the potential will not be possible within the foreseeable future. However, with a knowledge of the dark matter components, it should soon be possible to combine intermediate-scale data with measurements of large-scale cosmic microwave background anisotropies to yield useful information regarding the potential.

• OSTI ID: 6026437
• Journal Information: Physical Review, D (Particles Fields); (United States), Journal Name: Physical Review, D (Particles Fields); (United States) Vol. 48:6; ISSN 0556-2821; ISSN PRVDAQ
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

662210* -- Specific Theories & Interaction Models
72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
ANISOTROPY
COSMOLOGICAL MODELS
FLUCTUATIONS
GRAVITATIONAL WAVES
INFLATIONARY UNIVERSE
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS
POTENTIALS
Pa
Particle Systematics-- Unified Theories & Models-- (1992-)
SPECTRA
VARIATIONS