Cosmological inflation is the dominating paradigm to account for observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). In this thesis, we study the phenomenology of a class of particularly well motivated models of inflation, known under the generic name of hybrid models. They are characterised by a transition from a valley to a hilltop shaped potential. In particular, we study three limiting regimes of the simplest realisation, hybrid inflation, constraining its parameter space using observational bounds on the spectral index and the non-gaussianity of the primordial perturbations. We find that the model is highly constrained by observations, with large part of the parameter space either ruled out by a blue spectral index (ns > 1) or by a large non-gaussianity parameter fNL, two quantities measured with precision by PLANCK. However, there exists regions in parameter space leading to interesting phenomenology compatibly with observational bounds. Also, a version of hybrid inflation with a third light scalar field at horizon crossing is derived from the supersymmetry framework. We find that the model can generate observables within observational bounds.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:576059 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Orani, Stefano |
| Contributors | Rajantie, Arttu |
| Publisher | Imperial College London |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/11683 |
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