The warm inflationary universe

Abstract

In the past decade, the importance of dissipation and fluctuation to inflationary dynamics has been realized and has led to a new picture of inflation called warm inflation. Although these phenomena are common to condensed matter systems, for inflation models their importance has only recently started to be appreciated. The article describes the motivation for these phenomena during inflation and then examines their origins from first principles quantum field theory treatments of inflation models. Cosmology today is a data intensive field and this is driving theory to greater precision and predictability. This opens the possibility to consider tests for detecting observational signatures of dissipative processes, which will be discussed. In addition, it will be discussed how particle physics and cosmology are now working in tandem to push the boundaries of our knowledge about fundamental physics.

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Notes on contributors

Arjun Berera

Arjun Berera is a Lecturer of Physics at the University of Edinburgh. He did his undergraduate and graduate work at the University of California, Berkeley. His PhD research was in string theory. During graduate school, prior to starting his thesis work in theoretical particle physics, he had already done a great deal of research in condensed matter physics, including studying binary alloys, phase transitions and high temperature superconductivity. After his thesis his interests focused on particle physics phenomenology, first in perturbative QCD and then for the past several years in early universe cosmology.