Quantum slow-roll and quantum fast-roll inflationary initial conditions: CMB quadrupole suppression and further effects on the low CMB multipoles

Abstract

Quantum fast-roll initial conditions for the inflaton which are different from the classical fast-roll conditions and from the quantum slow-roll conditions can lead to inflation that lasts long enough. These quantum fast-roll initial conditions for the inflaton allow for kinetic energies of the same order of the potential energies and nonperturbative inflaton modes with nonzero wave numbers. Their evolution starts with a transitory epoch where the redshift due to the expansion succeeds to assemble the quantum excited modes of the inflaton in a homogeneous (zero mode) condensate, and the large value of the Hubble parameter succeeds to overdamp the fast roll of the redshifted inflaton modes. After this transitory stage the effective classical slow-roll epoch is reached. Most of the e-folds are produced during the slow-roll epoch, and we recover the classical slow-roll results for the scalar and tensor metric perturbations plus corrections. These corrections are important if scales which are horizon size today exited the horizon by the end of the transitory stage and, as a consequence, the lower cosmic microwave background (CMB) multipoles get suppressed or enhanced. Both for scalar and tensor metric perturbations, fast roll leads to a suppression of the amplitude of the perturbations (and of the low CMB multipoles), while the quantum precondensate epoch gives an enhancement of the amplitude of the perturbations (and of the low CMB multipoles). These two types of corrections can compete and combine in a scale dependent manner. They turn out to be smaller in new inflation than in chaotic inflation. These corrections arise as natural consequences of the quantum nonperturbative inflaton dynamics, and can allow a further improvement of the fitting of inflation plus the CMB model to the observed CMB spectra. In addition, the corrections to the tensor metric perturbations will provide an independent test of this model. Thus, the effects of quantum inflaton fast-roll initial conditions provide a consistent and contrastable model for the origin of the suppression of the quadrupole and for other departures of the low CMB multipoles from the slow-roll inflation- CMB model, which are to be contrasted with the TE and EE multipoles and with the forthcoming and future CMB data.