nickk124 / inflationaryfields Goto Github PK

Final project for ASTR 504/704: Cosmology, on the presence of an additional scalar field during the cosmological inflationary epoch. [I can't seem to find the final version of the .tex file, unfortunately :( ].

Following the observations of inflationary perturbations in recent years, a number of models for single-field inflation have been all but ruled out. However, if we move from single-field theory to considering the presence of an additional "spectator" curvaton field during inflation besides the inflaton, a number of inflaton potentials are made viable; this is because with the introduction of an additional field, observed perturbations can be decoupled from the inflaton. I will also consider the presence of a modulus spectator field, which generates nonuniform spatial modulations in the decay of the inflaton during reheating. Both of these spectator fields can also modify the observed perturbation power spectrum, which in turn can modify observerables such as the spectral index, tensor-to-scalar ratio, and the non-Gaussianity in observed fluctuations.