BICEP2 IN CORPUSCULAR DESCRIPTION OF INFLATION
Dvali G., Gomez C.

Received: October 4, 2014

DOI: 10.7868/S0044451015030192

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A corpuscular quantum description of inflation shows that there is no fundamental problem with trans-Planckian excursions of the inflaton field up to about 100 Planck masses, with the upper bound coming from the corpuscular quantum effects. In this description, the r parameter measures the ratio of occupation numbers of gravitons versus inflatons, which, according to BICEP2, was roughly a half at the time of 60 e-foldings prior to the end of inflation. We stress that in a non-Wilsonian UV self-completion of gravity, any trans-Planckian mode coupled to the inflaton is a black hole. Unlike the Wilsonian case, integrating them out gives an exponentially suppressed effect and is unable to prevent trans-Planckian excursions of the inflaton field. Contribution for the JETP special issue in honor of V. A. Rubakov's 60th birthday