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arXiv · hep-th/0703101

Scale-invariance in expanding and contracting universes from two-field models

Andrew J. Tolley·Daniel H. Wesley
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Abstract

We study cosmological perturbations produced by the most general two-derivative actions involving two scalar fields, coupled to Einstein gravity, with an arbitrary field space metric, that admit scaling solutions. For contracting universes, we show that scale-invariant adiabatic perturbations can be produced continuously as modes leave the horizon for any equation of state parameter $w \ge 0$. The corresponding background solutions are unstable, which we argue is a universal feature of contracting models that yield scale-invariant spectra. For expanding universes, we find that nearly scale-invariant adiabatic perturbation spectra can only be produced for $w \approx -1$, and that the corresponding scaling solutions are attractors. The presence of a nontrivial metric on field space is a crucial ingredient in our results.

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Andrew J. Tolley, Daniel H. Wesley. 2007-04-13. Scale-invariance in expanding and contracting universes from two-field models. https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516%2F2007%2F05%2F006

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