Abstract
We present a model where the inflaton field behaves like quintessence at late times, generating the present phase of accelerated expansion. This is achieved within the framework of warm inflation, in particular the Warm Little Inflaton scenario, where the underlying symmetries guarantee a successful inflationary period in a warm regime sustained by dissipative effects without significant backreaction on the scalar potential. This yields a smooth transition into a radiation-dominated epoch, at which point dissipative effects naturally shut down as the temperature drops below the mass of the fermions directly coupled to the inflaton. The post-inflationary dynamics is then analogous to a thawing quintessence scenario, with no kination phase at the end of inflation. Observational signatures of this scenario include the modified consistency relation between the tensor-to-scalar ratio and tensor spectral index typical of warm inflation models, the variation of the dark energy equation of state at low redshifts characteristic of thawing quintessence scenarios, and correlated dark energy isocurvature perturbations.
Highlights
We present a model where the inflaton field behaves like quintessence at late times, generating the present phase of accelerated expansion
This is achieved within the framework of warm inflation, in particular the Warm Little Inflaton scenario, where the underlying symmetries guarantee a successful inflationary period in a warm regime sustained by dissipative effects without significant backreaction on the scalar potential
It is hypothesized that a homogeneous scalar field, the inflaton φ, generates a phase of accelerated expansion in the early Universe, thereby solving the homogeneity and horizon problems and providing the seeds for structure formation and Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) anisotropies [3]
Summary
We present a model where the inflaton field behaves like quintessence at late times, generating the present phase of accelerated expansion. This corresponds to a modification of the original Warm Little Inflaton scenario [48], where only the leading thermal corrections to the scalar potential were absent as a result of the discrete interchange symmetry.
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