Warm inflation solution to the eta problem

Abstract

Warm inflationary dynamics is shown to satisfy both the slow-roll and density perturbation constraints for $m_{\phi} \gg H$ or equivalently $\eta \gg 1$ and for inflaton field amplitudes much below the Planck scale, $ < m_{pl}$. I start by reviewing the two types of inflation dynamics, isentropic or cold inflation and nonisentropic or warm inflation. In the former, inflation occurs without radiation production, whereas in the latter both radiation production and inflation occur concurrently. I then discuss recent, detailed, quantum field theory calculations showing that many generic inflation models, including hybrid inflation, which were believed only to have cold inflation regimes, in fact have regimes of both warm and cold inflation. These results dispel many foregone assumptions generally made up to now about inflation models and bring to the fore various elementary issues that must be addressed to do reliable calculations from inflation models. I also discuss density perturbations and observational consequences of warm inflation, especially related to WMAP. Finally I show that warm inflation has intrinsic features that make the ``eta problem'' nonexistent, and field amplitudes are below the Planck scale.