arXiv · 1307.5868
The importance of being warm (during inflation)
Abstract
The amplitude of primordial curvature perturbations is enhanced when a radiation bath at a temperature T>H is sustained during inflation by dissipative particle production, which is particularly significant when a non-trivial statistical ensemble of inflaton fluctuations is also maintained. Since gravitational modes are oblivious to dissipative dynamics, this generically lowers the tensor-to-scalar ratio and yields a modified consistency relation for warm inflation, as well as changing the tilt of the scalar spectrum. We show that this alters the landscape of observationally allowed inflationary models, with for example the quartic chaotic potential being in very good agreement with the Planck results for nearly-thermal inflaton fluctuations, whilst essentially ruled out for an underlying vacuum state. We also discuss other simple models that are in agreement with the Planck data within a renormalizable model of warm inflation.
Explore related subjects
Keep this discovery
Sam Bartrum, Mar Bastero-Gil, Arjun Berera, Rafael Cerezo, Rudnei O. Ramos, Joao G. Rosa. 2014-04-02. The importance of being warm (during inflation). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2014.03.029
Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.