Palatini side of inflationary attractors

Laur Järv, Antonio Racioppi, and Tommi Tenkanen
Phys. Rev. D 97, 083513 – Published 18 April 2018

Abstract

We perform an analysis of models of chaotic inflation where the inflaton field ϕ is coupled nonminimally to gravity via ξϕngμνRμν(Γ),n>0. We focus on the Palatini theory of gravity, i.e., the case where the assumptions of general relativity are relaxed (that of the connection being the Levi-Civita one) and the gravitational degrees of freedom are encoded in not only the metric but also the connection Γ, which is treated as an independent variable. We show that in this case the famous attractor behavior of simple nonminimally coupled models of inflation is lost. Therefore the attractors are not universal, but their existence depends on the underlying theory of gravity in a subtle way. We discuss what this means for chaotic models and their observational consequences.

  • Figure
  • Received 4 January 2018

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.97.083513

© 2018 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Gravitation, Cosmology & Astrophysics

Authors & Affiliations

Laur Järv1,*, Antonio Racioppi2,†, and Tommi Tenkanen3,‡

  • 1Laboratory of Theoretical Physics, Institute of Physics, University of Tartu, W. Ostwaldi 1, 50411 Tartu, Estonia
  • 2National Institute of Chemical Physics and Biophysics, Rävala 10, 10143 Tallinn, Estonia
  • 3Astronomy Unit, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS, United Kingdom

  • *laur.jarv@ut.ee
  • antonio.racioppi@kbfi.ee
  • t.tenkanen@qmul.ac.uk

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Issue

Vol. 97, Iss. 8 — 15 April 2018

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