The simplest models assume that the slope - also called the inflaton potential - resembles a very shallow parabola. ❋ Unknown (2010)
Inflation was triggered by a field in the early universe called the inflaton, whose energy density fell slowly, like a ball rolling down a gentle slope. ❋ Unknown (2010)
If the idea is correct, inflation was triggered by an energy field called the inflaton that drove the early universe to rapidly expand, stretching out and freezing what otherwise would have been random, short-lived quantum fluctuations. ❋ Unknown (2009)
This paradigm relies upon a repulsive "inflaton" causing accelerated expansion. ❋ L. Riofrio (2009)
As scientists once invoked epicycles to explain planetary motions, a repulsive "inflaton" was hypothesised to explain CMB uniformity. ❋ Unknown (2008)
In many of such theories, the scalar field equals the inflaton field, which is needed to explain the inflation of the universe after the Big Bang, as the dominating factor of the quintessence or Dark Energy. ❋ Unknown (2008)
The scalar field, or inflaton, cascaded down its field potential and induced this configuration. ❋ Unknown (2010)
These anisotropies are largely due to a quantum fluctuation, such as the scalar field of inflation inflaton, and we would not expect statistics which violated this, such as significant non-Gaussian distributions. ❋ Unknown (2010)
This preserves the basic idea of e-fold statistics on how inflaton fields "hop," but might prevent what I see as offensive boundary issues. ❋ Unknown (2009)
These occur because the inflaton field, a Higgs-like field which induces inflationary cosmology, assumes different values in different regions of the earliest spatial surface of the spacetime universe. ❋ Unknown (2009)
With the first of these the structure of the observable universe should give some indicator on whether the inflaton field engaged in the sort of stochastic “hopping” with the outcome we observe locally. ❋ Unknown (2009)
In that post, I described how, in a range of models, depending on the couplings between the inflaton field and other matter fields, reheating can occur in an extremely non-equilibrium fashion, through parametric resonance, known as preheating. ❋ Mark (2008)
Approaches to these two problems vary from phenomenological proposals for new mass energy sources to drive acceleration (the inflaton, dark energy) and the analogous attempts to modify the Einstein-Hilbert action for general relativity to allow for self-acceleration (modified gravity) to searches for an origin of either phenomenon within a complete theory of matter and gravity, such as string theory. ❋ Mark (2008)
It turns out that you can make things work if you have two scalar fields — one that does the inflating, cleverly called the “inflaton,” and the other which is responsible for the density perturbations, which should obviously be called the “perturbon” but for historical reasons is actually called the “curvaton.” ❋ Sean (2008)
This can be quite an efficient process, and the energy density in the inflaton can be smoothly converted into that of a thermal bath of particles to which it couples. ❋ Mark (2008)
However, if one thinks in Fourier space, one can see that the equation governing how the inflaton decays into other matter fields depends on the wavelength (and therefore frequency) of those fields, or modes (it is, for you experts, a Mathieu equation). ❋ Mark (2008)
Parametric resonance means that, depending on the model, the energy of the inflaton can be preferentially transferred into certain wavelengths (modes) and this can lead to the formation of particles with masses higher than the typical temperature associated with the original energy density of the inflaton. ❋ Mark (2008)
When people usually speak of the gravitational wave signature of inflation, they are referring to the gravity part of the quantum fluctuations of the inflaton (the scalar counterparts of which give rise to structure formation). ❋ Mark (2008)
