Realization of power law inflation & variants via variation of the strong coupling constant

Abstract

We present a model of power law inflation generated by variation of the strong coupling constant. We then extend the model to two varying coupling constants which leads to a potential consisting of a linear combination of exponential terms. Some variants of the latter may be self-consistent and can accommodate the experimental data of the Planck 2015 and other recent experiments.

Palatini f(R) Gravity and Variants of k-/Constant Roll/Warm Inflation within Variation of Strong Coupling Scenario

“…with R, the Ricci scalar, constructed from the metric g µν . Note that the form of the potential in Equation ( 2) is not placed by hand, but rather is dictated by the physical assumption of a varying strong coupling constant, where gauge and Lorentz invariance impose this form originating from the gluon condensate [5,6]. We start by making a change of variable absorbing the function f in order to obtain a "canonical" kinetic energy term.…”

“…We readdress our Bekenstein-like scenario within the warm inflation paradigm assuming non-MCtG and f (R) gravity embodied in the potential of Equation ( 19), whereupon placing α = 0 = ξ, we switch back to the original scenario of [6]. We shall also restrict our study to the weak dissipative regime Q << 1, remembering that Q = 0 corresponds to the cold inflation.…”

“…Although current geophysical and astronomical data preclude any variation of constants, be it strong coupling [2], or Higgs vev [3], or electric charge [4], no data preclude variation in very early times. In [5], a connection between variation of constants and inflation was suggested, whereas in [6], this idea was pursued further into a concrete model shown to be able to accommodate data in some variants involving multiple inflaton fields. Alternatively, the single inflaton model was shown in [1] to be viable provided one changes the gravitational sector and assumes f (R) gravity.…”

“…Inflationary scenarios by variation of constants generically suffer from appealing to new physics for an exit scenario during reheating [6]. A solution to this problem is provided by warm inflation paradigm [29][30][31].…”

Inflation by Variation of the Strong Coupling Constant: update for Planck 2018

“…However, no data exist to preclude variation of constants in the inflationary era. In [8], a link was suggested between variation of constants and inflation, and in [9] a detailed study of an inflationary model generated by the temporal variation of the strong coupling constant was presented and contrasted to Planck 2015 data. In some scenarios involving multiple fields, the model was viable with data.…”