Joint cosmology seminar at Tufts:

Tuesday, September 17, 2019, 2:30 pm
574 Boston Ave, Room 316
Tufts University
Refreshments at 2:00 outside room 304

Inflation and the theory of gravity

Tommi Tenkanen
Johns Hopkins

Abstract:

I will discuss models of inflation where the inflaton is coupled non-minimally to gravity. I will show that the so-called xi-attractor models where the predictions for observables approach those of Starobinsky model are not universal but their existence depends on the underlying theory of gravity in a subtle way. I will discuss the observational consequences of this for chaotic and multifield models including Higgs inflation, as well as for axion dark matter.