Quantum Dynamics of the Slow Rollover Transition in the Linear Delta Expansion.pdfVIP

Imperial/TP/99-0/35 Quantum Dynamics of the Slow Rollover Transition in the Linear Delta Expansion 0 ∗ † ‡ 0 H. F. Jones , P. Parkin and D. Winder 0 2 Physics Department, Imperial College, London, SW7 2BZ, UK g u August, 2000 A 8 1 v Abstract 9 6 We apply the linear delta expansion to the quantum mechanical version of the 0 slow rollover transition which is an important feature of inflationary models of the 8 early universe. The method, which goes beyond the Gaussian approximation, gives 0 0 results which stay close to the exact solution for longer than previous methods. It 0 provides a promising basis for extension to a full field theoretic treatment. / h t- PACS numbers: 03.65.-w, 05.70.Fh, 11.15.Tk p e h : 1 Introduction v i X Inflationary models of the early Universe rely on the slow evolution of an inflaton field r a ϕ from the initial unstable vacuum state in which ϕ = 0 to the final stable vacuum in which ϕ = ±a, say. The effective potential V (ϕ ) giving rise to this transition has the eff c generic form of a gentle hill centred at ϕ = 0 with minima at ϕ = ±a. c c The transition can be discussed at various levels of sophistication. At the most na¨ıve level one can think classically in terms of a ball rolling slowly down the slope of the poten- tial. The corresponding quantum-mechanical problem,