Onset of inflation amid backreaction from inhomogeneities
We analyze the onset of inflation for a simple single-field model when the system begins with significant inhomogeneities on length scales shorter than the initial Hubble radius. We incorporate certain nonlinear interactions among the coupled degrees of freedom by using the nonperturbative Hartree a...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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American Physical Society (APS)
2020
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/124566 |
| _version_ | 1826195814890864640 |
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| author | Bloomfield, Jolyon K. Fitzpatrick, Patrick Hilbert, Kiriakos Kaiser, David I. |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics Bloomfield, Jolyon K. Fitzpatrick, Patrick Hilbert, Kiriakos Kaiser, David I. |
| author_sort | Bloomfield, Jolyon K. |
| collection | MIT |
| description | We analyze the onset of inflation for a simple single-field model when the system begins with significant inhomogeneities on length scales shorter than the initial Hubble radius. We incorporate certain nonlinear interactions among the coupled degrees of freedom by using the nonperturbative Hartree approximation. Consistent with recent, more computationally intensive numerical-relativity studies, we find inflation to be robust for large-field models, even when the system begins with significant structure on sub-Hubble scales. We consider the space of initial conditions (φ(t0),φ(t0)), where φ is the vacuum expectation value of the quantized field that drives inflation. Although some regions of (φ(t0),φ(t0)) that would have yielded sufficient inflation in the absence of inhomogeneities fail to do so when backreaction from inhomogeneities is incorporated, an equal volume of such regions succeeds in producing sufficient inflation which did not do so in the absence of inhomogeneities. For large-field models, in other words, the total volume of the space of initial conditions (φ(t0),φ(t0)) that yields sufficient inflation is conserved when we incorporate nonlinear backreaction from inhomogeneities, compared to the case in which inhomogeneities are neglected. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T10:15:55Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/124566 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T10:15:55Z |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| publisher | American Physical Society (APS) |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1245662022-09-30T20:03:00Z Onset of inflation amid backreaction from inhomogeneities Bloomfield, Jolyon K. Fitzpatrick, Patrick Hilbert, Kiriakos Kaiser, David I. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous) We analyze the onset of inflation for a simple single-field model when the system begins with significant inhomogeneities on length scales shorter than the initial Hubble radius. We incorporate certain nonlinear interactions among the coupled degrees of freedom by using the nonperturbative Hartree approximation. Consistent with recent, more computationally intensive numerical-relativity studies, we find inflation to be robust for large-field models, even when the system begins with significant structure on sub-Hubble scales. We consider the space of initial conditions (φ(t0),φ(t0)), where φ is the vacuum expectation value of the quantized field that drives inflation. Although some regions of (φ(t0),φ(t0)) that would have yielded sufficient inflation in the absence of inhomogeneities fail to do so when backreaction from inhomogeneities is incorporated, an equal volume of such regions succeeds in producing sufficient inflation which did not do so in the absence of inhomogeneities. For large-field models, in other words, the total volume of the space of initial conditions (φ(t0),φ(t0)) that yields sufficient inflation is conserved when we incorporate nonlinear backreaction from inhomogeneities, compared to the case in which inhomogeneities are neglected. 2020-04-13T17:48:57Z 2020-04-13T17:48:57Z 2019-09-13 2020-02-06T18:09:57Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 2470-0010 2470-0029 https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/124566 Bloomfield, Jolyon K. et al. "Onset of inflation amid backreaction from inhomogeneities." Physical review. D 100 (2019): 063512 © 2019 The Author(s) en 10.1103/physrevd.100.063512 Physical review. D Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf American Physical Society (APS) APS |
| spellingShingle | Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous) Bloomfield, Jolyon K. Fitzpatrick, Patrick Hilbert, Kiriakos Kaiser, David I. Onset of inflation amid backreaction from inhomogeneities |
| title | Onset of inflation amid backreaction from inhomogeneities |
| title_full | Onset of inflation amid backreaction from inhomogeneities |
| title_fullStr | Onset of inflation amid backreaction from inhomogeneities |
| title_full_unstemmed | Onset of inflation amid backreaction from inhomogeneities |
| title_short | Onset of inflation amid backreaction from inhomogeneities |
| title_sort | onset of inflation amid backreaction from inhomogeneities |
| topic | Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous) |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/124566 |
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