A Horizon Ratio Bound for Inflationary Fluctuations

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dc.creatorDodelson, Scott
dc.creatorHui, Lam
dc.date2003-05-07
dc.date2003-05-21
dc.date.accessioned2026-07-07T11:29:07Z
dc.date.available2026-07-07T11:29:07Z
dc.descriptionWe demonstrate that the gravity wave background amplitude implies a robust upper bound on the ratio: λ/ H^{-1} < e^60, where λis the proper wavelength of fluctuations of interest and H^{-1} is the horizon at the end of inflation. The bound holds as long as the energy density of the universe does not drop faster than radiation subsequent to inflation. This limit implies that the amount of expansion between the time the scales of interest leave the horizon and the end of inflation, denoted by e^N, is also bounded from above, by about e^60 times a factor that involves an integral over the first slow-roll parameter. In other words, the bound on N is model dependent -- we show that for vast classes of slow-roll models, N < 67. The quantities, λ/ H^{-1} or N, play an important role in determining the nature of inflationary scalar and tensor fluctuations. We suggest ways to incorporate the above bounds when confronting inflation models with observations. As an example, this bound solidifies the tension between observations of cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies and chaotic inflation with a ϕ^4 potential by closing the escape hatch of large N (< 62).
dc.description4 pages, 1 figure; revised to close a loophole in the earlier version and clarify our assumptions
dc.identifierhttps://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0305113
dc.identifierhttp://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0305113
dc.identifierPhys.Rev.Lett.91:131301,2003
dc.identifierdoi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.91.131301
dc.identifier.urihttp://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/196609
dc.subjectAstrophysics
dc.subjectHigh Energy Physics - Phenomenology
dc.subjectHigh Energy Physics - Theory
dc.titleA Horizon Ratio Bound for Inflationary Fluctuations
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