title: Geometrical Destabilization of Inflation.
abstract: We show the existence of a general mechanism by which heavy scalar fields can be destabilized during inflation, relying on the fact that the curvature of the field space manifold can dominate the stabilizing force from the potential and destabilize inflationary trajectories. We describe a simple and rather universal setup in which higher-order operators suppressed by a large energy scale trigger this instability. This phenomenon can prematurely end inflation, thereby leading to important observational consequences and sometimes excluding models that would otherwise perfectly fit the data. More generally, it modifies the interpretation of cosmological constraints in terms of fundamental physics. We also explain how the geometrical destabilization can lead to powerful selection criteria on the field space curvature of inflationary models.
authors.affiliation: Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, UMR-7095 du CNRS, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, 98 bis bd Arago, 75014 Paris, France, and Sorbonne Universités, Institut Lagrange de Paris, 98 bis bd Arago, 75014 Paris, France.
authors.forename: Sébastien
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Renaux-Petel
authors.affiliation: Institute of Theoretical Physics, Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw, Pasteura 5, 02-093 Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Krzysztof
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Turzyński