How to produce an arbitrarily small tensor to scalar ratio

Abstract

In this paper, construct a toy a model which demonstrates that large field single scalar inflation can produce an arbitrarily small scalar to tensor ratio in the window of e-foldings recoverable from CMB experiments. This is done by generalizing the [Formula: see text]-attractor models to allow the potential to approach a constant as rapidly as we desire for super-Planckian field values. This implies that a non-detection of [Formula: see text] alone can never rule out entirely the theory of large field inflation.