Confronting Inflation and Reheating with Observations: Improved Predictions

TL;DR

This paper uses recent observational data to refine predictions of inflation and reheating phases, employing numerical methods for improved accuracy over traditional approximations, thereby tightening constraints on early universe models.

Contribution

It introduces numerically computed results for inflation and reheating, surpassing slow-roll approximations, to enhance the accuracy of early universe predictions and constraints.

Findings

Numerical results improve inflationary model predictions.

Tighter constraints on reheating history.

Enhanced understanding of early universe physics.

Abstract

Using the latest observational data, we constrain the inflationary dynamics and the subsequent reheating epoch. Predictions for both phases can be significantly improved by employing numerically computed results compared to the slow-roll approximations. These results enable a more accurate reassessment of the observational viability of inflationary models, provide tighter constraints on the reheating history, and help lift the degeneracies in the predictions of inflation and reheating dynamics. Given current observational bounds, this enables a more accurate understanding of the early universe physics.