SEARCH · Search NASA
Results for “Inflatable”
Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.
Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.
Inflation alternative via the gravitational field of a singularity
Abstract We explore the scenario that the observable Universe emerged from the vicinity of a negative mass ring singularity, and all content of the Universe travels at the same group velocity close to the speed of light on a geodesic trajectory along the axis of rotation of the singularity. In appropriate coordinate parametrization and evaluated on the trajectory, we find that the metric tensor in the vicinity of the trajectory exhibits a conformal scale factor a ( η ) with contraction and subsequent expansion properties that solve the horizon problem. We then introduce a static flow of gravitating radiation along the trajectory (perturbatively with respect to the mass scale of the singularity) to model a homogeneous radiation dominated Universe. Solving the Einstein field equations with a physically motivated ansatz of metric perturbation then reveals that the effective conformal scale factor indeed grows asymptotically with the same power law as expected in a conventional radiation dominated Universe.
Constraints from CMB in the intermediate Brans-Dicke inflation
We study an intermediate inflationary stage in a Jordan-Brans-Dicke theory. In this scenario we analyze the quantum fluctuations corresponding to adiabatic and isocurvature modes. Our model is compared to that described by using the intermediate model in Einstein general relativity theory. We assess the status of this model in light of the seven-year WMAP data.
Running spectral index from inflation with modulations
We argue that a large negative running spectral index, if confirmed, might suggest that there are abundant structures in the inflaton potential, which result in a fairly large (both positive and negative) running of the spectral index at all scales. It is shown that the center value of the running spectral index suggested by the recent CMB data can be easily explained by an inflaton potential with superimposed periodic oscillations. In contrast to cases with constant running, the perturbation spectrum is enhanced at small scales, due to the repeated modulations. We mention that such features at small scales may be seen by 21 cm observations in the future.
A covariant approach to general field space metric in multi-field inflation
We present a covariant formalism for general multi-field system which enables us to obtain higher order action of cosmological perturbations easily and systematically. The effects of the field space geometry, described by the Riemann curvature tensor of the field space, are naturally incorporated. We explicitly calculate up to the cubic order action which is necessary to estimate non-Gaussianity and present those geometric terms which have not yet been known before.
Second order perturbations during inflation beyond slow-roll
We numerically calculate the evolution of second order cosmological perturbations for an inflationary scalar field without resorting to the slow-roll approximation or assuming large scales. In contrast to previous approaches we therefore use the full non-slow-roll source term for the second order Klein-Gordon equation which is valid on all scales. The numerical results are consistent with the ones obtained previously where slow-roll is a good approximation. We investigate the effect of localised features in the scalar field potential which break slow-roll for some portion of the evolution. The numerical package solving the second order Klein-Gordon equation has been released under an open source license and is available for download.
Primordial fluctuations and non-Gaussianities from multifield DBI Galileon inflation
We study a cosmological scenario in which the DBI action governing the motion of a D3-brane in a higher-dimensional spacetime is supplemented with an induced gravity term. The latter reduces to the quartic Galileon Lagrangian when the motion of the brane is non-relativistic and we show that it tends to violate the null energy condition and to render cosmological fluctuations ghosts. There nonetheless exists an interesting parameter space in which a stable phase of quasi-exponential expansion can be achieved while the induced gravity leaves non trivial imprints. We derive the exact second-order action governing the dynamics of linear perturbations and we show that it can be simply understood through a bimetric perspective. In the relativistic regime, we also calculate the dominant contribution to the primordial bispectrum and demonstrate that large non-Gaussianities of orthogonal shape can be generated, for the first time in a concrete model. More generally, we find that the sign and the shape of the bispectrum offer powerful diagnostics of the precise strength of the induced gravity.
Computation of the power spectrum in chaotic ¼λφ{sup 4} inflation
The phase-integral approximation devised by Fröman and Fröman, is used for computing cosmological perturbations in the quartic chaotic inflationary model. The phase-integral formulas for the scalar power spectrum are explicitly obtained up to fifth order of the phase-integral approximation. As in previous reports (Rojas 2007b, 2007c and 2009), we point out that the accuracy of the phase-integral approximation compares favorably with the numerical results and those obtained using the slow-roll and uniform approximation methods.
Consistency relation for multifield inflation scenario with all loop contributions
The consistency relation between non-linear parameters f{sub NL} and τ{sub NL} characterizing Non-Gaussianity generated in the super horizon scale have been emerged as a useful tool to rule out a large class of inflationary models all at once. In our previous work, we extended the Suyama-Yamaguchi inequality up to 1-loop corrections. In this paper, we further extend the inequality up to all loop corrections, and found that it takes the same expression with the original Suyama-Yamaguchi inequality, τ{sub NL} ≥ ((6/5)f{sub NL}){sup 2}, where the equality is not satisfied in the case of single field models any more.
IR divergences in inflation and entropy perturbations
We study leading order perturbative corrections to the two point correlation function of the scalar field describing the curvature perturbation in a slow-roll inflationary background, paying particular attention to the contribution of entropy mode loops. We find that the infrared divergences are worse than in pure de Sitter space: they are power law rather than logarithmic. The validity of perturbation theory and thus of the effective field theory of cosmological perturbations leads to stringent constraints on the coupling constants describing the interactions, in our model the quartic self-interaction coupling constant of the entropy field. If the self coupling constant is larger than some critical value which depends in particular on the duration of the inflationary phase, then perturbation theory breaks down. Our analysis may have implications for the stability of de Sitter space: the quantum effects which lead to an instability of de Sitter space will be larger in magnitude in the presence of entropy fluctuations.
Inflation and nonminimal scalar-curvature coupling in gravity and supergravity
Inflationary slow-roll dynamics in Einstein gravity with a nonminimal scalar-curvature coupling can be equivalent to that in the certain f(R) gravity theory. We review the correspondence and extend it to N=1 supergravity. The nonminimal coupling in supergravity is rewritten in terms of the standard ('minimal') N=1 matter-coupled supergravity by using curved superspace. The established equivalence between two different inflationary theories means the same inflaton scalar potential, and does not imply the same post-inflationary dynamics and reheating.
Influence of heavy modes on perturbations in multiple field inflation
We investigate linear cosmological perturbations in multiple field inflationary models where some of the directions are light while others are heavy (with respect to the Hubble parameter). By integrating out the massive degrees of freedom, we determine the multi-dimensional effective theory for the light degrees of freedom and give explicitly the propagation matrix that replaces the effective sound speed of the one-dimensional case. We then examine in detail the consequences of a sudden turn along the inflationary trajectory, in particular the possible breakdown of the low energy effective theory in case the heavy modes are excited. Resorting to a new basis in field space, instead of the usual adiabatic/entropic basis, we study the evolution of the perturbations during the turn. In particular, we compute the power spectrum and compare with the result obtained from the low energy effective theory.
Curvature perturbation spectrum in two-field inflation with a turning trajectory
We revisit a two-component inflaton model with a turning trajectory in the field space, where the field slowly rolls down along the trajectory. We consider the case when the effective mass in the direction perpendicular to the trajectory, namely the isocurvature direction, is either of the same order as or much larger than the Hubble parameter. Assuming that the turning angular velocity is small, we compute analytically the corrections to the power spectrum of curvature perturbation caused by the mediation of the heavy isocurvature perturbation, and compare our analytic results with the numerical ones. Especially, when M{sub eff}{sup 2} >> H{sup 2}, we find that it is proportional to M{sub eff}{sup −2}. This result is consistent with the one obtained previously by an effective field theory approach.
Approach to exact inflation in modified Friedmann equation
We study inflationary universe models that are characterized by a single scalar inflaton field. The study of these models are based on two dynamical equations; one corresponding to the Klein-Gordon equation for the inflaton field, and the other, to a generalized Friedmann equation. After describing the kinematics and dynamics of the models, we determine in some detail scalar density perturbations and relic gravitational waves. We apply this approach to the Friedmann-Chern-Simons and the brane-world inflationary models.
Momentum dependence of the bispectrum in two-field inflation
We examine the momentum dependence of the bispectrum of two-field inflationary models within the long-wavelength formalism. We determine the sources of scale dependence in the expression for the parameter of non-Gaussianity f{sub NL} and study two types of variation of the momentum triangle: changing its size and changing its shape. We introduce two spectral indices that quantify the possible types of momentum dependence of the local type f{sub NL} and illustrate our results with examples.
Fluid inflation
In this work we present an inflationary mechanism based on fluid dynamics. Starting with the action for a single barotropic perfect fluid, we outline the procedure to calculate the power spectrum and the bispectrum of the curvature perturbation. It is shown that a perfect barotropic fluid naturally gives rise to a non-attractor inflationary universe in which the curvature perturbation is not frozen on super-horizon scales. We show that a scale-invariant power spectrum can be obtained with the local non-Gaussianity parameter f{sub NL} = 5/2.
Curvature perturbations in anisotropic inflation with symmetry breaking
We study curvature perturbations in the anisotropic inflationary model with a complex scalar field charged under a U(1) gauge field in Bianchi I universe. Due to Abelian Higgs mechanism, the gauge field receives an additional longitudinal mode. We verify that the dominant contributions into statistical anisotropies come from matter fields perturbations and one can neglect the contributions from the metric perturbations. It is shown that the contribution of longitudinal mode into the statistical anisotropy power spectrum, though exponentially small, has an opposite sign compared to the corresponding contribution from the transverse mode. We obtain an upper bound on gauge coupling in order to satisfy the observational constraints on curvature perturbations anisotropy.
String inflation after Planck 2013
We briefly summarize the impact of the recent Planck measurements for string inflationary models, and outline what might be expected to be learned in the near future from the expected improvement in sensitivity to the primordial tensor-to-scalar ratio. We comment on whether these models provide sufficient added value to compensate for their complexity, and ask how they fare in the face of the new constraints on non-gaussianity and dark radiation. We argue that as a group the predictions made before Planck agree well with what has been seen, and draw conclusions from this about what is likely to mean as sensitivity to primordial gravitational waves improves.