Chaotic Dynamics and Two-Field Inflation

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates chaos in two-field inflation models after inflation ends, showing it influences defect production and universe growth sensitivity to initial conditions.

Contribution

It reveals the presence of chaos in realistic two-field inflation models and explores its impact on cosmological predictions.

Findings

Chaos occurs during post-inflation oscillations.

Chaos increases topological defect production.

Chaos makes universe growth rate highly sensitive to initial conditions.

Abstract

We demonstrate the existence of chaos in realistic models of two-field inflation. The chaotic motion takes place after the end of inflation, when the fields are free to oscillate and their motion is only lightly damped by the expansion of the universe. We then investigate whether the presence of chaos affects the predictions of two-field models, and show that chaos enhances the production of topological defects and renders the growth rate of the universe sensitively dependent upon the ``initial'' conditions at the beginning of the oscillatory era.