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Phys. Rev. D 71, 063524 (2005) [7 pages]

Testing for double inflation with WMAP

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David Parkinson1, Shinji Tsujikawa2, Bruce A. Bassett3,1, and Luca Amendola4
1Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation, University of Portsmouth, Mercantile House, Portsmouth PO1 2EG, United Kingdom
2Department of Physics, Gunma National College of Technology, Gunma 371-8530, Japan
3Department of Physics, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan
4INAF/Ossevatorio Astronomico di Roma, Viale Frascati 33, 00040 Monte Porzio Catone (Roma), Italy

Received 13 December 2004; published 22 March 2005

With the WMAP data we can now begin to test realistic models of inflation involving multiple scalar fields. These naturally lead to correlated adiabatic and isocurvature (entropy) perturbations with a running spectral index. We present the first full (9 parameter) likelihood analysis of double inflation with WMAP data and find that despite the extra freedom, supersymmetric hybrid potentials are strongly constrained with less than 7% correlated isocurvature component allowed when standard priors are imposed on the cosomological parameters. As a result we also find that Akaike and Bayesian model selection criteria rather strongly prefer single-field inflation, just as equivalent analysis prefers a cosmological constant over dynamical dark energy in the late universe. It appears that simplicity is the best guide to our universe.

© 2005 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevD.71.063524
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevD.71.063524
PACS:
98.80.Cq