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A Tail of Eternal Inflation

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arxiv 2111.09332 v2 pith:5B2GIYQ4 submitted 2021-11-17 hep-th astro-ph.COhep-ph

classification hep-thastro-ph.COhep-ph
keywords inflationeternalfluctuationssitterdistributioneffectivefindhorizon
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Non-trivial inflaton self-interactions can yield calculable signatures of primordial non-Gaussianity that are measurable in cosmic surveys. Surprisingly, we find that the phase transition to slow-roll eternal inflation is often incalculable in the same models. Instead, this transition is sensitive to the non-Gaussian tail of the distribution of scalar fluctuations, which probes physics inside the horizon, potentially beyond the cutoff scale of the Effective Field Theory of Inflation. We demonstrate this fact directly by calculating non-Gaussian corrections to Stochastic Inflation within the framework of Soft de Sitter Effective Theory, from which we derive the associated probability distribution for the scalar fluctuations. We find parameter space consistent with current observations and weak coupling at horizon crossing in which the large fluctuations relevant for eternal inflation can only be determined by appealing to a UV completion. We also show this breakdown of the perturbative description is required for the de Sitter entropy to reflect the number of de Sitter microstates.

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Cited by 4 Pith papers

Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score. Full citation record

  1. Stochastic inflation from a non-equilibrium renormalization group

    hep-th 2026-05 unverdicted novelty 7.0 of 10

    Stochastic inflation is the leading infrared limit of a coarse-grained Schwinger–Keldysh effective theory, and the same Fokker–Planck dynamics follows from a Polchinski-type renormalization-group flow for the reduced ...

  2. Classical conformal invariance and superhorizon dynamics in de Sitter

    hep-th 2026-07 conditional novelty 6.5 of 10

    Standard SdSET power counting fails for classically conformal φ⁴; leading superhorizon modes must be read from the two-loop anomalous dimension of the two-point function.

  3. It\^{o}, Stratonovich, and zoom-in schemes in stochastic inflation

    astro-ph.CO 2024-11 accept novelty 6.0 of 10

    An alternating drift-and-kick 'zoom-in' scheme for stochastic inflation is equivalent to the Itô interpretation, and the Itô-Stratonovich difference vanishes in the full non-Markovian setup.

  4. The Quantum Mechanics of Rare Events: From Quantum Walks to Stochastic Inflation

    hep-th 2026-08 conditional novelty 5.0 of 10

    Rare fluctuations in quantum walks are ruled by a measurement-induced relative entropy, and applying this to stochastic inflation yields a steady state that violates detailed balance.

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