Reconstructing the Inflaton Potential

TL;DR

This paper reviews methods for reconstructing the inflaton potential using large scale structure and microwave background data, highlighting the significance of detecting gravitational waves and presenting preliminary results on simulated data.

Contribution

It introduces a new approach to determine the inflaton potential from observational data and discusses the importance of gravitational wave detection in this context.

Findings

Preliminary tests on simulated data show promise for the method.

Detection of gravitational waves could significantly constrain the inflaton potential.

The approach integrates large scale structure and microwave background anisotropy data.

Abstract

A review is presented of recent work by the authors concerning the use of large scale structure and microwave background anisotropy data to determine the potential of the inflaton field. The importance of a detection of the stochastic gravitational wave background is emphasised, and some preliminary new results of tests of the method on simulated data sets with uncertainties are described. (Proceedings of ``Unified Symmetry in the Small and in the Large'', Coral Gables, 1994)