Curvaton and quantum gravity effect on the tensor-to-scalar ratio of the chaotic inflation

The expected tensor-to-scalar ratio estimate of the upcoming CMB mission probe measurements may establish a lower value of the ratio than the currently obtained value. It can be described in terms of a single field chaotic inflation model along with the curvaton or quantum gravity or their combined effect. Consequently, the role of quantum gravity or curvaton in the dynamics of the early universe may not be ruled out. The curvaton scenario and quantum gravity effect can be tested experimentally. The upcoming CMB missions can validate the curvaton scenario and quantum gravity experimentally.

Favored Inflationary Models by Scalar Field Condensate Baryogenesis

We calculate the baryon asymmetry value generated in the Scalar Field Condensate (SCF) baryogenesis model obtained in several inflationary scenarios and different reheating models. We provide analysis of the baryon asymmetry value obtained for more than 70 sets of parameters of the SCF model and the following inflationary scenarios, namely: new inflation, chaotic inflation, Starobinsky inflation, MSSM inflation, quintessential inflation. We considered both cases of efficient thermalization after inflation and delayed thermalization. We have found that the SFC baryogenesis model produces baryon asymmetry orders of magnitude bigger than the observed one for the following inflationary models: new inflation, new inflation model by Shafi and Vilenkin, MSSM inflation, chaotic inflation with high reheating temperature and the simplest Shafi–Vilenkin chaotic inflationary model. Strong diluting mechanisms are needed for these models to reduce the resultant baryon excess at low energies to its observational value today. We have found that a successful generation of the observed baryon asymmetry is possible by the SCF baryogenesis model in Modified Starobinsky inflation, chaotic inflation with low reheating temperature, chaotic inflation in SUGRA, and Quintessential inflation.

Generalized Galileon scenario inspires chaotic inflation

We study chaotic inflation with a Galileon-like self-interaction $$G(\phi ,X)\Box \phi $$G(ϕ,X)□ϕ, where $$G(\phi ,X)\propto X^{n}$$G(ϕ,X)∝Xn. General conditions required for successful inflation are deduced and discussed from the background and cosmological perturbations under slow-roll approximation. Interestingly, it is found that in the regime where the Galileon term dominates over the standard kinetic term, the tensor-to-scalar ratio becomes significantly suppressed in comparison to the standard expression in General Relativity (GR). Particularly, we find the allowed range in the space of parameters characterizing the chaotic quadratic and quartic inflation models by considering the current observational data of Planck from the $$n_{\mathcal {S}}-r$$nS-r plane. Finally, we discuss about the issue if the Galileon term is dominant by the end of inflation, this can affect the field oscillation during reheating.

Gauss–Bonnet Inflation and the String Swampland

The swampland criteria are generically in tension with single-field slow-roll inflation because the first swampland criterion requires small tensor-to-scalar ratio while the second swampland criterion requires either large tensor-to-scalar ratio or large scalar spectral tilt. The challenge to single-field slow-roll inflation imposed by the swampland criteria can be avoided by modifying the relationship between the tensor-to-scalar ratio and the slow-roll parameter. We show that the Gauss–Bonnet inflation with the coupling function inversely proportional to the potential overcomes the challenge by adding a constant factor in the relationship between the tensor-to-scalar ratio and the slow-roll parameter. For the Gauss–Bonnet inflation, while the swampland criteria are satisfied, the slow-roll conditions are also fulfilled, so the scalar spectral tilt and the tensor-to-scalar ratio are consistent with the observations. We use the potentials for chaotic inflation and the E-model as examples to show that the models pass all the constraints. The Gauss–Bonnet coupling seems a way out of the swampland issue for single-field inflationary models.