Radiative plateau inflation

TL;DR

This paper explains how radiative corrections can transform monomial chaotic inflation models into plateau-like potentials, aligning them with recent CMB observations and moderating primordial gravitational wave production.

Contribution

It introduces a minimal particle physics framework for radiative plateau inflation and offers a model-independent description suitable for CMB data analysis.

Findings

Radiative corrections produce a plateau in inflation potentials.

Couplings to fermions and scalars/gauge groups are essential.

Models can suppress primordial gravitational waves.

Abstract

We describe how monomial chaotic inflation becomes compatible with the latest CMB data thanks to radiative corrections producing a plateau. The interactions of the inflation with other fields, required for reheating, can flatten the potential and moderate the production of primordial gravitational waves, keeping these below the current upper bound. We show that the appearance of a plateau requires that the inflaton couples to fermions and to another scalar or a gauge group. We give concrete examples of minimal particle physics models leading to plateaus for quadratic and quartic chaotic inflation. We also provide a three-parameter model-independent description of radiatively corrected inflation that is amenable to CMB analyses.