Thermal, Trapped and Chromo-Natural Inflation in light of the Swampland Criteria and the Trans-Planckian Censorship Conjecture

TL;DR

This paper examines various inflation models in cosmology in relation to swampland criteria and the Trans-Planckian Censorship Conjecture, assessing their energy scales and consistency.

Contribution

It analyzes thermal, trapped, and chromo-natural inflation models under swampland and TCC constraints, clarifying their viability at different energy scales.

Findings

Thermal inflation is compatible with TCC and swampland criteria at low energies.

Trapped and chromo-natural inflation can satisfy swampland conditions due to effective damping.

TCC constrains high-energy inflation models to occur only at low energies.

Abstract

We consider thermal, trapped and chromo-natural inflation in light of the swampland criteria and the Trans-Planckian Censorship Conjecture (TCC). Since thermal inflation occurs at energies low compared to those of Grand Unification, it is consistent with the TCC, and it is also consistent with the refined swampland conditions. Trapped and chromo-natural inflation are candidates for primordial (high energy scale) inflation. Since in both of these scenarios there are effective damping terms in the scalar field equation of motion, the models can easily be consistent with the swampland criteria. The TCC, on the other hand, constrains these scenarios to only take place at low energies.