Inflation on a Slippery Slope

Understand

We study inflation in a random multifield potential, using techniques developed by Marsh et al.

• The potential is a function of a large number of fields, and we choose parameters so that inflation only occurs in regions where the potential is accidentally flat.
• Using an improved estimate for the dynamics of eigenvalue repulsion, we are able to describe the steepening of the potential as inflation progresses.
• We provide suggestive arguments, but not a proof, that the resulting scalar power spectrum generically disagrees with observations.