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Coarse-Grained Back Reaction in Single Scalar Field Driven Inflation

Ghazal Geshnizjani·Niayesh Afshordi
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Abstract

We introduce a self-consistent stochastic coarse-graining method, which includes both metric and scalar field fluctuations, to investigate the back reaction of long wavelength perturbations in single-scalar driven inflation, up to the second (one loop) order. We demonstrate that, although back reaction cannot be significant during the last 70 e-foldings of inflation with a smooth potential, there exist non-smooth inflaton potentials which allow significant back reaction, and are also consistent with cosmological observations. Such non-smooth potentials may lead to the generation of massive primordial black holes, which could be further used to constrain/verify these models.

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Ghazal Geshnizjani, Niayesh Afshordi. 2004-05-21. Coarse-Grained Back Reaction in Single Scalar Field Driven Inflation. https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516%2F2005%2F01%2F011

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