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It is known that the single-field inflation with a transient ultra-slow-roll phase can produce a large curvature perturbation at small scales for the formation of primordial black holes. In our previous work, we have considered quantum loop corrections to the curvature perturbation and found that the growth of these small-scale modes would affect the curvature perturbation at large scales probed by cosmic microwave background observation. In this work, we will further derive the constraints on the growing modes in the transition between the slow-roll and the ultra-slow-roll phases under the effect of the loop corrections. Our results would help clarify the recent controversy on whether or not the primordial-black-hole formation from the single-field inflation is ruled out at one-loop level., Comment: 28 pages, 14 figures

We develop a nonperturbative method through the Hartree factorization to examine the quantum fluctuation effects on the single-field inflationary models in a spatially flat FRW cosmological space-time. Apart from the background field equation as well as the Friedmann equation with the corrections of quantum field fluctuations, the modified Mukhanov-Sasaki equations for the mode functions of the quantum scalar field are also derived by introducing the nonzero $\Delta_B$ term. We consider the Universe undergoing the slow roll (SR)-ultra slow roll (USR) -slow roll (SR) inflation where in particular the presence of the USR inflation triggers the huge growth of $\Delta_B$ that in turn gives the boost effects to the curvature perturbations for the modes that leave horizon in the early times of the inflation. However, the cosmic friction term in the mode equation given by the Hubble parameter presumably prohibits the boost effects. Here we propose two representative models to illustrate these two competing terms., Comment: 18 pages, 12 figures

We study the growth of superhorizon modes in the curvature perturbation during an ultra-slow-roll or a large-$\eta$ phase in single-field inflation. In a simple toy model, we derive the two-point correlation function of the curvature perturbation and show that the requirement for causality restricts the growth rate and hence puts a lower limit on the value of $\eta$. The toy model is then realized by considering an inflation potential with an inflection point. Our study is useful to assessing the growth of the curvature perturbation that seeds the formation of primordial black holes., Comment: 5 figures

In the axion monodromy inflation, the inflation is driven by the axion with super-Planckian field values in a monomial potential with superimposed sinusoidal modulations. The coupling of the axion to massless gauge fields can induce copious particle production during inflation, resulting in large non-Gaussian curvature perturbation that leads to the formation of primordial black holes. In this paper, we explore the parameter space in the axion monodromy inflation model that favors the formation of primordial black holes with masses ranging from $10^8$ grams to $20$ solar masses. We also study the associated gravitational waves and their detection in pulsar timing arrays and interferometry experiments., Comment: 13 figures, matches the publicized version

Trapped inflation has been proposed to provide a successful inflation with a steep potential. We discuss the formation of primordial black holes in the trapped inflationary scenario. We show that primordial black holes are naturally produced during inflation with a steep trapping potential. In particular, we have given a recipe for an inflaton potential with which particle production can induce large non-Gaussian curvature perturbation that leads to the formation of high stellar-mass primordial black holes. These primordial black holes could be dark matter observed by the LIGO detectors through a binary black-hole merger. At the end, we have given an attempt to realize the required inflaton potential in the axion monodromy inflation, and discussed the gravitational waves sourced by the particle production., Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, match the version accepted by JHEP

A numerical study of a pseudoscalar inflation having an axion-photon-like coupling is performed by solving numerically the coupled differential equations of motion for inflaton and photon mode functions from the onset of inflation to the end of reheating. The backreaction due to particle production is also included self-consistently. We find that this particular inflation model realizes the idea of a warm inflation in which a steady thermal bath is established by the particle production. In most cases this thermal bath exceeds the amount of radiation released in the reheating process. In the strong coupling regime, the transition from the inflationary to the radiation-dominated phase does not involve either a preheating or reheating process. In addition, energy density peaks produced near the end of inflation may lead to the formation of primordial black holes., Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures

We discuss the generation of primordial magnetic fields during inflation in the dilaton-axion electromagnetism, in which the dilaton and axion dynamics are introduced in terms of two time dependent functions of the cosmic scale factor, $I(a) F^2/4$ and $J(a) F\tilde{F}/4$, respectively, where $F$ is the electromagnetic field strength and $\tilde{F}$ is its dual. We study the form of $J(a)$ that can generate a large seed magnetic field in the weak coupling regime, $I(a)<1$. Although the $J(a)$ function is model dependent, the axion-photon coupling indeed opens up a new window for a successful inflationary magnetogenesis., Comment: 13 pages with 6 figures using revtex4