New constraints on multi-field inflation with nonminimal coupling

Abstract

We study the dynamics and perturbations during inflation and reheating in a multi-field model where a second scalar field $χ$ is nonminimally coupled to the scalar curvature $(\frac12 ξRχ^2$). When $ξ$ is positive, the usual inflationary prediction for large-scale anisotropies is hardly altered while the $χ$ fluctuation in sub-Hubble modes can be amplified during preheating for large $ξ$. For negative values of $ξ$, however, long-wave modes of the $χ$ fluctuation exhibit exponential increase during inflation, leading to the strong enhancement of super-Hubble metric perturbations even when $|ξ|$ is less than unity. This is because the effective $χ$ mass becomes negative during inflation. We constrain the strength of $ξ$ and the initial $χ$ by the amplitude of produced density perturbations. One way to avoid nonadiabatic growth of super-Hubble curvature perturbations is to stabilize the $χ$ mass through a coupling to the inflaton. Preheating may thus be necessary in these models to protect the stability of the inflationary phase.