A novel way of constraining the α-attractor chaotic inflation through Planck data

Abstract

Abstract Defining a scale of k-modes of the quantum fluctuations during inflation through the dynamical horizon crossing condition k = aH we go from the physical t variable to k variable and solve the equations of cosmological first-order perturbations self consistently, with the chaotic α-attractor type potentials. This enables us to study the behaviour of ns , r, nt and N in the k-space. Comparison of our results in the low-k regime with the Planck data puts constraints on the values of the α parameter through microscopic calculations. Recent studies had already put model-dependent constraints on the values of α through the hyperbolic geometry of a Poincaré disk: consistent with both the maximal supergravity model 𝒩 = 8 and the minimal supergravity model 𝒩 = 1, the constraints on the values of α are 1/3, 2/3, 1, 4/3, 5/3, 2, 7/3. The minimal 𝒩 = 1 supersymmetric cosmological models with B-mode targets, derived from these supergravity models, predicted the values of r between 10-2 and 10-3. Both in the E-model and the T-model potentials, we have obtained, in our calculations, the values of r in this range for all the constrained values of α stated above, within 68% CL. Moreover, we have calculated r for some other possible values of α both in low-α limit, using the formula r = 12α/N 2, and in the high-α limit, using the formula r = 4n/N, for n = 2 and 4. With all such values of α, our calculated results match with the Planck-2018 data with 68% or near 95% CL.