No Arabic abstract
We present a detailed derivation of the recently suggested new type of hill-top inflation [arXiv:1509.07270] originating from the microcanonical density matrix initial conditions in cosmology driven by conformal field theory (CFT). The cosmological instantons of topology $S^1times S^3$, which set up these initial conditions, have the shape of a garland with multiple periodic oscillations of the scale factor of the spatial $S^3$-section. They describe underbarrier oscillations of the inflaton and scale factor in the vicinity of the inflaton potential maximum, which gives a sufficient amount of inflation required by the known CMB data. We build the approximation of two coupled harmonic oscillators for these garland instantons and show that they can generate inflation consistent with the parameters of the CMB primordial power spectrum in the non-minimal Higgs inflation model and in $R^2$ gravity. In particular, the instanton solutions provide smallness of inflationary slow-roll parameters $epsilon$ and $eta<0$ and their relation $epsilonsimeta^2$ characteristic of these two models. We present the mechanism of formation of hill-like inflaton potentials, which is based on logarithmic loop corrections to the asymptotically shift-invariant tree level potentials of these models in the Einstein frame. We also discuss the role of $R^2$-gravity as an indispensable finite renormalization tool in the CFT driven cosmology, which guarantees the non-dynamical (ghost free) nature of its scale factor and special properties of its cosmological garland type instantons. Finally, as a solution to the problem of hierarchy between the Planckian scale and the inflation scale we discuss the concept of a hidden sector of conformal higher spin fields.
We discuss the hybrid inflation model where the inflaton field is nonminimally coupled to gravity. In the Jordan frame, the potential contains $phi^4$ term as well as terms in the original hybrid inflation model. In our model, inflation can be classified into the type (I) and the type (II). In the type (I), inflation is terminated by the tachyonic instability of the waterfall field, while in the type (II) by the violation of slow-roll conditions. In our model, the reheating takes place only at the true minimum and even in the case (II) finally the tachyonic instability occurs after the termination of inflation. For a negative nonminimal coupling, inflation takes place in the vacuum-dominated region, in the large field region, or near the local minimum/maximum. Inflation in the vacuum dominated region becomes either the type (I) or (II), resulting in blue or red spectrum of the curvature perturbations, respectively. Inflation around the local maximum can be either the type (I) or the type (II), which results in the red spectrum of the curvature perturbations, while it around the local minimum must be the type (I), which results in the blue spectrum. In the large field region, to terminate inflation, potential in the Einstein frame must be positively tilted, always resulting in the red spectrum. We then numerically solve the equations of motion to investigate the whole dynamics of inflaton and confirm that the spectrum of curvature perturbations changes from red to blue ones as scales become smaller.
The supersymmetric extension of Starobinsky $R+alpha R^2$ models of inflation is particularly simple in the new minimal formalism of supergravity, where the inflaton has no scalar superpartners. This paper is devoted to matter couplings in such supergravity models. We show how in the new minimal formalism matter coupling presents certain features absent in other formalisms. In particular, for the large class of matter couplings considered in this paper, matter must possess an R-symmetry, which is gauged by the vector field which becomes dynamical in the new minimal completion of the $R+alpha R^2$ theory. Thus, in the dual formulation of the theory, where the gauge vector is part of a massive vector multiplet, the inflaton is the superpartner of the massive vector of a nonlinearly realized R-symmetry. The F-term potential of this theory is of no-scale type, while the inflaton potential is given by the D-term of the gauged R-symmetry. The absolute minimum of the potential is always exactly supersymmetric, so in this class of models if realistic vacua exist, they must be always metastable. We also briefly comment on possible generalizations of the examples discussed here and we exhibit some features of higher-curvature supergravity coupled to matter in the old minimal formalism.
We consider a model where a light scalar field (with mass $lesssim 30, {rm eV}$), conjectured to be dark matter, has a non-minimal coupling to gravity. In the non-relativistic limit, this new coupling introduces a self-interaction term in the scalar-field equation of motion, and modifies the source term for the gravitational field. Moreover, in the small-coupling limit justified by the observed dark-matter density, the system further reduces to the Gross-Pitaevskii-Poisson equations, which remarkably also arise from a self-gravitating and self-interacting Bose-Einstein condensate system. We derive predictions of our model on linear and non-linear structure formation by exploiting this unexpected connection.
We propose a new construction of the supergravity inflation as an UV completion of the Higgs-$R^2$ inflation. In the dual description of $R^2$-supergravity, we show that there appear dual chiral superfields containing the scalaron or sigma field in the Starobinsky inflation, which unitarizes the supersymmetric Higgs inflation with a large non-minimal coupling up to the Planck scale. We find that a successful slow-roll inflation is achievable in the Higgs-sigma field space, but under the condition that higher curvature terms are introduced to cure the tachyonic mass problems for spectator singlet scalar fields. We also discuss supersymmetry breaking and its transmission to the visible sector as a result of the couplings of the dual chiral superfields and the non-minimal gravity coupling of the Higgs fields.
We investigate two-field inflationary models in which scalar cosmological pertubations are generated via a spectator field nonminimally coupled to gravity, with the particular emphasis on curvaton scenarios. The principal advantage of these models is in the possibility to tune the spectator spectral index via the nonminimal coupling. Our models naturally yield red spectrum of the adiabatic perturbation demanded by observations. We study how the nonminimal coupling affects the spectrum of the curvature perturbation generated in the curvaton scenarios. In particular we find that for small, negative nonminimal couplings the spectral index gets a contribution that is negative and linear in the nonminimal coupling. Since in this way the curvature spectrum becomes redder, some of curvaton scenarios can be saved, which would otherwise be ruled out. In the power law inflation we find that a large nonminimal coupling is excluded since it gives the principal slow roll parameter that is of the order of unity. Finally, we point out that nonminimal coupling can affect the postinflationary growth of the spectator perturbation, and in this way the effectiveness of the curvaton mechanism.