Viability of slow-roll inflation in light of the non-zero k_min measured in the cosmic microwave background power spectrum

DOI10.1098/RSPA.2020.0364zbMATH Open1472.83118arXiv2006.02510OpenAlexW3038659700MaRDI QIDQ5161024FDOQ5161024

Authors: Fulvio Melia, Jing-Wei Liu 

Publication date: 29 October 2021

Published in: Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: Slow-roll inflation may simultaneously solve the horizon problem and generate a near scale-free fluctuation spectrum P(k). These two processes are intimately connected via the initiation and duration of the inflationary phase. But a recent study based on the latest Planck release suggests that P(k) has a hard cutoff, k_min > 0, inconsistent with this conventional picture. Here we demonstrate quantitatively that most---perhaps all---slow-roll inflationary models fail to accommodate this minimum cutoff. We show that the small parameter `epsilon' must be > 0.9 throughout the inflationary period to comply with the data, seriously violating the slow-roll approximation. Models with such an epsilon predict extremely red spectral indices, at odds with the measured value. We also consider extensions to the basic picture (suggested by several earlier workers) by adding a kinetic-dominated or radiation-dominated phase preceding the slow-roll expansion. Our approach differs from previously published treatments principally because we require these modifications to---not only fit the measured fluctuation spectrum, but to simultaneously also---fix the horizon problem. We show, however, that even such measures preclude a joint resolution of the horizon problem and the missing correlations at large angles.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/2006.02510

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zbMATH Keywords

cosmologyinflationearly universerelativityastrophysicscosmological theory

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Relativistic cosmology (83F05)

Cites Work

• Inflationary universe: A possible solution to the horizon and flatness problems

Cited In (5)

• Classicalization of quantum fluctuations at the Planck scale in the \(R_{\mathrm{h}} = ct\) universe
• THE EFFECTIVE THEORY OF INFLATION IN THE STANDARD MODEL OF THE UNIVERSE AND THE CMB+LSS DATA ANALYSIS
• The slow-roll condition and the amplitude of the primordial spectrum of cosmic fluctuations: contrasts and similarities of the standard account and the ‘collapse scheme’
• Ruling out inflation driven by a power law potential: kinetic coupling does not help
• Discrepancies between observational data and theoretical forecast in single field slow roll inflation

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