Sustaining quasi de-Sitter inflation with bulk viscosity

Fuente: arXiv
Enregistré dans:
Détails bibliographiques
Auteurs principaux: Lahiri, Sayantani, Rezzolla, Luciano
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2023
Sujets:
Accès en ligne:
Tags: Ajouter un tag
Pas de tags, Soyez le premier à ajouter un tag!
_version_ 1866916131600596992
author Lahiri, Sayantani
Rezzolla, Luciano
author_facet Lahiri, Sayantani
Rezzolla, Luciano
contents We here investigate bulk-viscosity driven quasi de-Sitter inflation, that is, the period of accelerated expansion in the early universe during which $-\dot{H}\ll H^2$, with $H(t)$ being the Hubble expansion rate. We do so in the framework of a causal theory of relativistic hydrodynamics that takes into account non-equilibrium effects associated to bulk viscosity that may be present as the early universe undergoes an accelerated expansion. In this framework, the existence of a quasi de-Sitter universe emerges as a natural consequence of the presence of bulk viscosity, without requiring to introduce additional scalar fields. As a result, the equation of state, determined by numerically solving the generalized momentum-conservation equation involving bulk-viscosity pressure turns out to be time-dependent. The transition timescale characterising its departure from an exact de-Sitter phase is intricately related to the magnitude of the bulk viscosity. We examine the properties of the new equation of state, as well as the transition timescale in presence of bulk-viscosity pressure. In addition, we construct a fluid description of inflation and demonstrated that, in the context of the causal formalism, it is equivalent to the scalar field theory of inflation. Our analysis also shows that the slow-roll conditions are realised in the bulk-viscosity supported model of inflation. Finally, we examine the viability of our model by computing the inflationary observables, namely, the spectral index and the tensor-to-scalar ratio of the curvature perturbations, and compare them with a number of different observations finding good agreement in most cases.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2305_07950
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Sustaining quasi de-Sitter inflation with bulk viscosity
Lahiri, Sayantani
Rezzolla, Luciano
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
We here investigate bulk-viscosity driven quasi de-Sitter inflation, that is, the period of accelerated expansion in the early universe during which $-\dot{H}\ll H^2$, with $H(t)$ being the Hubble expansion rate. We do so in the framework of a causal theory of relativistic hydrodynamics that takes into account non-equilibrium effects associated to bulk viscosity that may be present as the early universe undergoes an accelerated expansion. In this framework, the existence of a quasi de-Sitter universe emerges as a natural consequence of the presence of bulk viscosity, without requiring to introduce additional scalar fields. As a result, the equation of state, determined by numerically solving the generalized momentum-conservation equation involving bulk-viscosity pressure turns out to be time-dependent. The transition timescale characterising its departure from an exact de-Sitter phase is intricately related to the magnitude of the bulk viscosity. We examine the properties of the new equation of state, as well as the transition timescale in presence of bulk-viscosity pressure. In addition, we construct a fluid description of inflation and demonstrated that, in the context of the causal formalism, it is equivalent to the scalar field theory of inflation. Our analysis also shows that the slow-roll conditions are realised in the bulk-viscosity supported model of inflation. Finally, we examine the viability of our model by computing the inflationary observables, namely, the spectral index and the tensor-to-scalar ratio of the curvature perturbations, and compare them with a number of different observations finding good agreement in most cases.
title Sustaining quasi de-Sitter inflation with bulk viscosity
topic General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.07950