WHAT IF THE INFLATON IS A SPINOR CONDENSATE?
Abstract
In the usual cosmological inflationary scenarios, the scalar field — the inflaton — is usually assumed to be an elementary field. In this essay, we ask: What are the observational signatures if the scalar field is a spinor condensate? And is there a way to distinguish between the canonical scalar field and the spinor-condensate-driven models? In the homogeneous and isotropic background, we show that — although the dark-spinor (Elko) condensate leads to an acceleration equation identical to that of the canonical-scalar-field-driven inflation — the dynamics of the two models are different. In the slow-roll limit, we show that the model predicts a running of the scalar spectral index consistent with the WMAP data. We show that the consistency relations between the spinor condensate and the canonical-scalar-field-driven model are different, which we will be able to test using the future CMB and gravitational wave missions.
This essay received an honorable mention in the 2009 Essay Competition of the Gravity Research Foundation. It was refereed, not as a regular IJMPD research paper, but as an essay.
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