Primordial Perturbations Including Second-Order Derivatives of the Inflationary Potential

TL;DR

This paper investigates second-order effects of the inflationary potential on primordial perturbations, revealing that small potential deviations can significantly alter the spectra, thus aiding in constraining inflation models.

Contribution

It introduces a method to evaluate second-order potential effects on primordial spectra across various scales, providing new constraints on inflationary parameters.

Findings

Second-order potential effects can significantly influence primordial spectra.

Small deviations in the potential may lead to observable differences in perturbation spectra.

Long inflation durations amplify the impact of potential variations.

Abstract

In inflationary cosmology, the form of the potential is still an open problem. In this work, second-order effects of the inflationary potential are evaluated and related to the known formula for the primordial perturbations at a wide range of scales. We found effects that may help to unravel the unknown inflationary potential form and impose new constraints on the parameters that define this potential. In particular, we demonstrate that even slight deviations in the inflationary potential can lead to significant differences in the calculated spectra if inflation persists sufficiently long and the normal modes of perturbations are affected by these variations.