Entropic Inflation in Presence of Scalar Field

Abstract

In spirit of the recently proposed four-parameter generalized entropy of apparent horizon, we investigate inflationary cosmology where the matter field inside of the horizon is dominated by a scalar field with a power law potential (i.e., the form of ϕn where ϕ is the scalar field under consideration). Actually without any matter inside of the horizon, the entropic cosmology leads to a de-Sitter spacetime, or equivalently, an eternal inflation with no exit. Thus in order to achieve a viable inflation, we consider a minimally coupled scalar field inside the horizon, and moreover, with the simplest quadratic potential. It is well known that the ϕ2 potential in standard scalar field cosmology is ruled out from inflationary perspective as it is not consistent with the recent Planck 2018 data; (here it may be mentioned that in the realm of “apparent horizon thermodynamics”, the standard scalar field cosmology is analogous to the case where the entropy of the apparent horizon is given by the Bekenstein–Hawking entropy). However, the story becomes different if the horizon entropy is of generalized entropic form, in which case, the effective energy density coming from the horizon entropy plays a significant role during the evolution of the universe. In particular, it turns out that in the context of generalized entropic cosmology, the ϕ2 potential indeed leads to a viable inflation (according to the Planck data) with a graceful exit, and thus the potential can be made back in the scene.