Double inflation

Journal Article · Thu Jan 15 04:00:00 EST 1987 · Phys. Rev. D; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.35.419· OSTI ID:6737884

Silk, J; Turner, M S

The Zel'dovich spectrum of adiabatic density perturbations is a generic prediction of inflation. There is increasing evidence that when the spectrum is normalized by observational data on small scales, there is not enough power on large scales to account for the observed large-scale structure in the Universe. Decoupling the spectrum on large and small scales could solve this problem. As a means of decoupling the large and small scales we propose double inflation (i.e., two episodes of inflation). In this scenario the spectrum on large scales is determined by the first episode of inflation and those on small scales by a second episode of inflation. We present three models for such a scenario. By nearly saturating the large-angular-scale cosmic microwave anisotropy bound, we can easily account for the observed large-scale structure. We take the perturbations on small scales to be very large, deltarho/rhoapprox. =0.1--0.01, which results in the production of primordial black holes, early formation of structure, reionization of the Universe, and a rich array of astrophysical events. The ..cap omega.. problem is also addressed by our scenario. Allowing the density perturbations produced by the second episode of inflation to be large also lessens the fine-tuning required in the scalar potential and makes reheating much easier. We briefly speculate on the possibility that the second episode of inflation proceeds through the nucleation of bubbles, which today manifest themselves as empty bubbles whose surfaces are covered with galaxies.

• Research Organization: Astronomy Department, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720
• OSTI ID: 6737884
• Journal Information: Phys. Rev. D; (United States), Journal Name: Phys. Rev. D; (United States) Vol. 35:2; ISSN PRVDA
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

640106* -- Astrophysics & Cosmology-- Cosmology
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
BLACK HOLES
CORRELATION FUNCTIONS
COSMIC RADIATION
COSMOLOGICAL MODELS
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
FUNCTIONS
GALAXIES
IONIZING RADIATIONS
MASS SPECTRA
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MICROWAVE RADIATION
PERTURBATION THEORY
RADIATIONS
SPECTRA
UNIVERSE