Quintessential inflation: A unified scenario of inflation and dark energy

TL;DR

This paper explores a unified model where a single scalar field drives both early universe inflation and late-time cosmic acceleration, comparing its predictions with Planck data.

Contribution

It proposes a quintessential inflation scenario using canonical and non-canonical scalar fields, unifying inflation and dark energy in a single framework.

Findings

Model aligns with Planck data

Scalar field acts as inflaton and quintessence

Unified explanation for inflation and dark energy

Abstract

Quintessential inflation unifies inflation and late time acceleration by a single scalar field. Such a scenario, with canonical and non-canonical scalar fields, has been discussed . The scalar field behaves as an inflaton field during inflation and as a quintessence field during late time. Also the predictions of the models has been compared with the recent Planck data.