Work

Climbing over the potential barrier during inflation via null energy condition violation

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: The violation of the null energy condition (NEC) may play a crucial role in enabling a scalar field to climb over high potential barriers, potentially significant in the very early universe. We propose a single-field model where the universe sequentially undergoes a first stage of slow-roll inflation, NEC violation, and a second stage of slow-roll inflation. Through the NEC violation, the scalar field climbs over high potential barriers, leaving unique characteristics on the primordial gravitational wave power spectrum, including a blue-tilted nature in the middle-frequency range and diminishing oscillation amplitudes at higher frequencies. Additionally, the power spectrum exhibits nearly scale-invariant behavior on both large and small scales.

Source: The European Physical Journal C

DOI: 10.1140/epjc/s10052-024-13340-1

Authors: Shi Pan, Yong Cai, Yun-Song Piao

Institutions: Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Theoretical Physics, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Zhengzhou University, International Centre for Theoretical Physics Asia-Pacific

Language: English

Topic: Cosmology and Gravitation Theories

Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics

Field: Physics and Astronomy

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: diamond