Inflation with non-minimal coupling: Metric vs. Palatini formulations

We analyze non-minimally coupled scalar field theories in metric (second-order) and Palatini (first-order) formalisms in a comparative fashion. After contrasting them in a general setup, we specialize to inflation and find that the two formalisms differ in their predictions for various cosmological...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physics letters. B 2008-07, Vol.665 (4), p.222-226
Main Authors: Bauer, Florian, Demir, Durmuş A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Exact sciences and technology
Nuclear physics
Physics
The physics of elementary particles and fields
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Summary:We analyze non-minimally coupled scalar field theories in metric (second-order) and Palatini (first-order) formalisms in a comparative fashion. After contrasting them in a general setup, we specialize to inflation and find that the two formalisms differ in their predictions for various cosmological parameters. The main reason is that dependencies on the non-minimal coupling parameter are different in the two formalisms. For successful inflation, the Palatini approach prefers a much larger value for the non-minimal coupling parameter than the Metric approach. Unlike the Metric formalism, in Palatini, the inflaton stays well below the Planck scale whereby providing a natural inflationary epoch.
ISSN:0370-2693
1873-2445
DOI:10.1016/j.physletb.2008.06.014