Tunnelling in Dante's Inferno

TL;DR

This paper investigates quantum tunnelling in Dante's Inferno inflation model, deriving constraints on parameters to ensure tunnelling does not prematurely end inflation, with results applicable at the effective field theory level.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of tunnelling rates in Dante's Inferno model and establishes bounds to suppress tunnelling during inflation.

Findings

Derived explicit numerical bounds for tunnelling rates

Constrained model parameters to prevent rapid tunnelling

Applicable constraints at the effective field theory level

Abstract

We study quantum tunnelling in Dante's Inferno model of large field inflation. Such a tunnelling process, which will terminate inflation, becomes problematic if the tunnelling rate is rapid compared to the Hubble time scale at the time of inflation. Consequently, we constrain the parameter space of Dante's Inferno model by demanding a suppressed tunnelling rate during inflation. The constraints are derived and explicit numerical bounds are provided for representative examples. Our considerations are at the level of an effective field theory; hence, the presented constraints have to hold regardless of any UV completion.