Possibly Large Corrections to the Inflationary Observables

TL;DR

This paper highlights that heavy fields during inflation can significantly modify inflationary predictions, potentially surpassing expected experimental precision and second-order slow-roll corrections.

Contribution

It reveals that neglecting heavy fields during inflation can lead to substantial corrections in observable predictions, a factor often overlooked in standard models.

Findings

Heavy fields can induce large corrections to inflationary observables.

These corrections may exceed second-order slow-roll contributions.

Implications for the accuracy of upcoming experimental measurements.

Abstract

We point out that the theoretical predictions for the inflationary observables may be generically altered by the presence of fields which are heavier than the Hubble rate during inflation and whose dynamics is usually neglected. They introduce corrections which may be easily larger than both the second-order contributions in the slow-roll parameters and the accuracy expected in the forthcoming experiments.