PIRSA:09120017

The Attractiveness of Higher Dimensional Operators for Inflation

APA

Underwood, B. (2009). The Attractiveness of Higher Dimensional Operators for Inflation. Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. https://pirsa.org/09120017

MLA

Underwood, Bret. The Attractiveness of Higher Dimensional Operators for Inflation. Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Dec. 15, 2009, https://pirsa.org/09120017

BibTex

          @misc{ scivideos_PIRSA:09120017,
            doi = {10.48660/09120017},
            url = {https://pirsa.org/09120017},
            author = {Underwood, Bret},
            keywords = {Cosmology},
            language = {en},
            title = {The Attractiveness of Higher Dimensional Operators for Inflation},
            publisher = {Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics},
            year = {2009},
            month = {dec},
            note = {PIRSA:09120017 see, \url{https://scivideos.org/index.php/pirsa/09120017}}
          }
          

Bret Underwood Pacific Lutheran University

Talk numberPIRSA:09120017
Source RepositoryPIRSA
Talk Type Scientific Series
Subject

Abstract

Scalar field models of early universe inflation are effective field theories, typically valid only up to some UV energy scale, and receive corrections through higher dimensional operators due to the UV physics. Corrections to the tree level inflationary potential by these operators can ruin an otherwise suitable model of inflation. In this talk, I will consider higher dimensional kinetic operators, and the corrections that they give to the dynamics of the inflaton field. In particular, I will show how inflationary solutions exist even when the higher dimensional operators are important and not tuned to be negligible. I will then show that these solutions, which include the usual slow roll inflationary solutions, are attractors in phase space. I will end by speculating on the role of the corrections from these higher dimensional operators in alleviating the homogeneous initial conditions problem for inflation.