A universal bound on excitations of heavy fields during inflation

Journal Article · Mon Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 2014 · Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2014/09/029· OSTI ID:22375875

Battefeld, Thorsten

We discuss a universal bound on any excitation of heavy fields during inflation: the ratio of the heavy field's energy density to the one driving inflation must be less than the maximally allowed relative amplitude of oscillations in the power-spectrum ρ{sub h}/ρ{sub I} ∼< 0.01  according to PLANCK). This bound can be traced back to the sudden change of the equation of state parameter across the excitation event. We employ a sudden transition approximation at the perturbed level, which has been used before in different settings; we check its validity by comparison to the full multi-field result in a concrete case study involving a sudden mass change of an inflaton.

• OSTI ID: 22375875
• Journal Information: Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Vol. 2014, Issue 09; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1475-7516
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
AMPLITUDES
APPROXIMATIONS
CONCRETES
COSMOLOGICAL INFLATION
ENERGY DENSITY
EQUATIONS OF STATE
EXCITATION
MASS
OSCILLATIONS
SPECTRA