Metric to Palatini (and vice versa): the strong limit and potential reconstruction in attractor theories of inflation

Abstract: The same model of inflation can be written in many different ways, often concealing its true physical degrees of freedom. In this talk, I will demonstrate how scalar-tensor theories of inflation are linked through equivalence classes in the absence of kinetic poles. When poles are introduced, this equivalence is broken, but the resulting "attractor" models give particularly robust predictions that do not depend on the inflationary potential, in the so-called "strong coupling limit". However, this independence may also be broken when switching to a different underlying formalism of gravity (metric or Palatini). I will discuss the conditions for the strong limit to be maintained regardless the gravitational formalism employed, and the conditions for the potential to be reconstructed in a formalism-independent way.

astrophysicscondensed mattergeneral relativity and quantum cosmologyhigh energy physicsmathematical physicsclassical physicsgeneral physics

Audience: researchers in the topic

Theoretical physics seminar @ Tartu