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Auteurs principaux: Sousa, Tomás, Bartlett, Deaglan J., Desmond, Harry, Ferreira, Pedro G.
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2023
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Accès en ligne:https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.16786
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author Sousa, Tomás
Bartlett, Deaglan J.
Desmond, Harry
Ferreira, Pedro G.
author_facet Sousa, Tomás
Bartlett, Deaglan J.
Desmond, Harry
Ferreira, Pedro G.
contents Inflation is a highly favoured theory for the early Universe. It is compatible with current observations of the cosmic microwave background and large scale structure and is a driver in the quest to detect primordial gravitational waves. It is also, given the current quality of the data, highly under-determined with a large number of candidate implementations. We use a new method in symbolic regression to generate all possible simple scalar field potentials for one of two possible basis sets of operators. Treating these as single-field, slow-roll inflationary models we then score them with an information-theoretic metric ("minimum description length") that quantifies their efficiency in compressing the information in current data. We explore two possible priors on the parameter space of potentials, one related to the functions' structural complexity and one that uses a Katz back-off language model to prefer functions that may be theoretically motivated. This enables us to identify the inflaton potentials that optimally balance simplicity with accuracy at explaining current data, which may subsequently find theoretical motivation. Our exploratory study opens the door to extraction of fundamental physics directly from data, and may be augmented with more refined theoretical priors in the quest for a complete understanding of the early Universe.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2310_16786
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Optimal Inflationary Potentials
Sousa, Tomás
Bartlett, Deaglan J.
Desmond, Harry
Ferreira, Pedro G.
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Machine Learning
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
High Energy Physics - Theory
Inflation is a highly favoured theory for the early Universe. It is compatible with current observations of the cosmic microwave background and large scale structure and is a driver in the quest to detect primordial gravitational waves. It is also, given the current quality of the data, highly under-determined with a large number of candidate implementations. We use a new method in symbolic regression to generate all possible simple scalar field potentials for one of two possible basis sets of operators. Treating these as single-field, slow-roll inflationary models we then score them with an information-theoretic metric ("minimum description length") that quantifies their efficiency in compressing the information in current data. We explore two possible priors on the parameter space of potentials, one related to the functions' structural complexity and one that uses a Katz back-off language model to prefer functions that may be theoretically motivated. This enables us to identify the inflaton potentials that optimally balance simplicity with accuracy at explaining current data, which may subsequently find theoretical motivation. Our exploratory study opens the door to extraction of fundamental physics directly from data, and may be augmented with more refined theoretical priors in the quest for a complete understanding of the early Universe.
title Optimal Inflationary Potentials
topic Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Machine Learning
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
High Energy Physics - Theory
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.16786