On the viability of quintessential inflation models from observational data

Assuming that primordial density fluctuations are nearly Gaussian, from a frequentist viewpoint, the two-dimensional marginalized joint coincidence contour in the plane

(n_s,r)

(being

n_s

the spectral index and r the ratio of tensor to scalar perturbations), without the presence of running is often used to test the viability of the inflationary models. The models that provide, between 50 and 60 e-folds, a curve in that plane lying outside the

95.5\%

C.L are ruled out. I will basically argue that, in quintessential inflation, this low number of e-folds is unjustified, and that models leading to a theoretical value of the running different from zero must be checked with observational data allowing the running. When both prescriptions are taken into account, dealing in the context of quintessential inflation, i.e. when the potential is a combination of an inflationary with a quintessential one that leads to a kination (also called deflation) regime, inflationary models such as the quartic or the Higgs potential are allowed.

Note:

version accepted for publication in GERG

98.80.Jk
98.80.Bp
04.20.-q
Quintessence
Inflation
Reheating
E-folds
inflation: model
density: fluctuation
perturbation: scalar

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Figures(1)

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