Published April 15, 2007 | Version v1
Journal article

On what scale should inflationary observables be constrained?

  • 1. Cosmology and Gravity Group, Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics, University of Cape Town, Cape Town (South Africa)
  • 2. Astronomy Centre, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9QH (United Kingdom)

Description

We examine the choice of scale at which constraints on inflationary observables are presented. We describe an implementation of the hierarchy of inflationary consistency equations which ensures that they remain enforced on different scales, and then seek to optimize the scale for presentation of constraints on marginalized inflationary parameters from WMAP3 data. For models with spectral index running, we find a strong variation of the constraints through the range of observational scales available, and optimize by finding the scale which decorrelates constraints on the spectral index nS and the running. This scale is k=0.017 Mpc-1, and gives a reduction by a factor of more than four in the allowed parameter area in the nS-r plane (r being the tensor-to-scalar ratio) relative to k=0.002 Mpc-1. These optimized constraints are similar to those obtained in the no-running case. We also extend the analysis to a larger compilation of data, finding essentially the same conclusions

Additional details

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Physical Review. D, Particles Fields
Journal Volume
75
Journal Issue
8
Journal Page Range
p. 083520-083520.9
ISSN
0556-2821
CODEN
PRVDAQ

INIS

Country of Publication
United States
Country of Input or Organization
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
INIS RN
39042161
Subject category
S72: PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS;
Descriptors DEI
COSMOLOGY; INDEXES; INFLATIONARY UNIVERSE; SCALARS; TENSORS; VARIATIONS
Descriptors DEC
COSMOLOGICAL MODELS; DOCUMENT TYPES; MATHEMATICAL MODELS

Optional Information

Notes
(c) 2007 The American Physical Society