On the reliability of inflaton potential reconstruction
- 22 July 1998
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Physical Society (APS) in Physical Review D
- Vol. 58 (4) , 043002
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.58.043002
Abstract
If primordial scalar and tensor perturbation spectra can be inferred from observations of the cosmic background radiation and large-scale structure, then one might hope to reconstruct a unique single-field inflaton potential capable of generating the observed spectra. In this paper we examine conditions under which such a potential can be reliably reconstructed. For it to be possible at all, the spectra must be well fit by a Taylor series expansion. A complete reconstruction requires a statistically significant tensor mode to be measured in the microwave background. We find that the observational uncertainties dominate the theoretical error from use of the slow-roll approximation, and conclude that the reconstruction procedure will never insidiously lead to an irrelevant potential.Keywords
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