1.Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Kurdistan, Pasdaran St. P.O. Box 66177-15175, Sanandaj, Iran 2.Development Center for Research and Training (DCRT), University of Human Development, Sulaimani, Kurdistan Region, Iraq 3.Center for Space Research, North-West University, Mafikeng, South Africa 4.School of Astronomy, Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences (IPM), P. O. Box 19395-5531, Tehran, Iran 5.Department of Physics, College of Science, University of Sulaimani, Sulaimani, Kurdistan Region, Iraq Received Date:2020-02-07 Accepted Date:2020-05-17 Available Online:2020-09-01 Abstract:In this study, the scenario of a two-component warm tachyon inflation is considered, where the tachyon field plays the role of the inflaton by driving the inflation. During inflation, the tachyon scalar field interacts with the other component of the Universe, which is assumed to be photon gas, i.e., radiation. The interacting term contains a dissipation coefficient, and the study is modeled based on two different and familiar choices of the coefficient that were studied in the literature. By employing the latest observational data, the acceptable ranges for the free parameters of the model are obtained. For any choice within the estimated ranges, there is an acceptable concordance between the theoretical predictions and observations. Although the model is established based on several assumptions, it is crucial to verify their validity for the obtained values of the free parameters of the model. It is found that the model is not self-consistent for all values of the ranges, and for some cases, the assumptions are violated. Therefore, to achieve both self-consistency and agreement with the data, the parameters of the model must be constrained. Subsequently, we consider the recently proposed swampland conjecture, which imposes two conditions on the inflationary models. These criteria rule out some inflationary models; however, warm inflation is among those that successfully satisfy the swampland criteria. We conduct a precise investigation, which indicates that the proposed warm tachyon inflation cannot satisfy the swampland criteria for some cases. In fact, for the first case of the dissipation coefficient, in which, there is dependency only on the scalar field, the model agrees with observational data. However, it is in direct tension with the swampland criteria. Nevertheless, for the second case, wherein the dissipation coefficient has a dependency on both the scalar field and temperature, the model exhibits acceptable agreement with observational data, and suitably satisfies the swampland criteria.
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2.Tachyon modelThe Universe is assumed to be filled with a scalar field driving inflation (referred to as the inflaton) and photon gas. The geometry of the Universe is described by a spatially flat FLRW metric. Then, the Friedmann equation is given as
$3H^2 = \rho_{\phi} + \rho_r,$
(1)
where $M_p^2 = 1/8\pi G = 1$. As mentioned in the introduction, the inflaton is assumed to be a tachyon fluid, which can be described by a diagonal energy-momentum-tensor, $T_{\phi \nu}^{\mu} = {\rm diag}(-\rho_{\phi},p_{\phi},p_{\phi},p_{\phi})$① [81]. The energy density and pressure are given by the following relations, respectively [81]
where the dot denotes a derivative with respect to the cosmic time t, and $V(\phi)$ refers the potential of the tachyon field. Owing to the interaction between the tachyon field and radiation, the energy conservation equations are modified as [100]
where $\Gamma$ is the dissipation coefficient, the general form of which can be a function of both the scalar field and temperature. The radiation part has a well-known equation of state as $p_r = \rho_r /3$. Using Eq. (2) and Friedmann equation (1), the interaction term is obtained as
which is different from those interaction terms that have been introduced in [84, 85, 87, 88, 92]. This difference leads to the usual definition of the dissipative parameter as $Q \equiv \Gamma / 3 H$. The tachyon field equation of motion is obtained by substituting Eq. (2) into Eq. (3)
where prime denotes a derivative with respect to the tachyon field $\phi$. To obtain an accelerated expansion phase, it is assumed that the tachyon field dominates the photon gas energy density. Thus, the Friedmann Equation (1) is rewritten as
Assuming that the Hubble parameter is a function of the tachyon field, i.e. $H: = H(\phi)$, and because $\dot{H}: = H'\dot{\phi}$, the time derivative of the field is found as
Another assumption in the scenario of warm inflation is quasi-stable production of the photon gas, i.e. $\dot{\rho_{\gamma}}\ll 4H\rho_{\gamma} , \Gamma\dot{\phi}^2$, in which by imposing this condition on Eq. (4), the radiation energy density is obtained as
where T is the temperature of the thermal bath, and $\alpha$ is a well-known Stephen–Boltzman constant. The first slow-roll parameter is defined as $\epsilon \equiv - \dot{H} / H^2$, which using Eq. (8) becomes
where Eqs. (8) and (10) have been applied to obtain this expression. The amount of the Universe expansion during the inflationary times is measured by the number of e-folds, N, defined as②
where the subscript "e" in $\phi_e$ denotes the tachyon field at the end of inflation. Apart from the evolution of the background parameters, we must know about the perturbative behaviours of the parameters at the inflationary period. Cosmological perturbations are the most important predictions of the inflation. These perturbations can generally be divided into three types as scalar, vector, and tensor perturbations. The vector type is typically ignored because it depends on the inverse of the scale factor and will be diluted exponentially during inflation. The primordial seeds of the large scale structure of the Universe are believed to be the scalar perturbations that are generated during inflation. In the warm inflationary scenario, there are both quantum and thermal fluctuations; however, it is assumed that the thermal fluctuations overcome the quantum fluctuations. The power-spectrum of these fluctuations for the tachyon model is given by [84]
For our model, $\tilde{\Gamma}$ is equal to $3 \Gamma H^2$, as given by Eq. (5). The scalar spectral index, defined as ${\cal{P}}_s = {\cal{P}}_s^{\star} \big( k / k_{\star} \big)^{n_s-1}$, is another observational parameter that measures the scale-dependency of the power-spectrum, where $n_s = 1$ indicates that the power-spectrum is scale-invariant. This parameter is obtained by taking the log-derivative of the power-spectrum as
Another type of primordial fluctuations are given by the tensor paramters, which are also known as the primordial gravitational waves. Because the fluid has no role in the tensor perturbations equation, the power-spectrum of tensor perturbations is obtained in the same manner as the cold inflationary scenario, i.e., ${\cal{P}}_t = H^2 / 2\pi^2$ [85, 87, 88, 101, 102]. The tensor perturbations are measured indirectly through the parameter r, which is defined as the ratio of the power-spectrums of the tensor perturbation to the scalar perturbations, $r = {\cal{P}}_t / {\cal{P}}_s$. In contrast to the scalar perturbations, there are no exact data for this parameter, and there is only an upper bound $r > 0.064$. 22.1.Strong dissipative regime
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2.1.Strong dissipative regime
Depending on the value of the dissipative parameter Q, the study of warm inflation can be divided into two regimes, namely the strong dissipative regime (SDR) and weak dissipative regime (WDR), which respectively correspond to $Q \gg 1$ and $Q \ll 1$. For the remainder of the study, the model is considered only for SDR, where the approximation $(1+Q) \simeq Q$ is used in the equations. In warm inflation, thermal fluctuations dominate over quantum fluctuations, and the corresponding fluctuations in the scalar field are given by $\delta\phi^2\approx {k_F T}/{2\pi^2}$, where $k_F = \sqrt {\tilde{\Gamma} H/V}$ [84]. Inserting this value into Eq. (14), the amplitude of the scalar perturbations in SDR becomes
The scalar spectral index $n_s$, which is related to the power-spectrum of the scalar perturbation via (16), is obtained in terms of the slow-roll parameters as
Notably, the spectral index is obtained up to the first order of slow-roll parameters. Using Eq. (17) and the tensor power-spectrum, the tensor-to-scalar ratio is obtained as
$r = {16 H'^2 \over T \sqrt{H}} \; {\rm exp}(2\tilde{\chi}(\phi))$
(20)
In the following section, two typical examples are considered for the dissipative coefficient $\Gamma$. Further, the Hubble parameter is assumed as a power-law function of the scalar field, i.e., $H(\phi) = H_0 \phi^n$ for the remainder of the work. -->
3.1.First case: $\Gamma = \Gamma_0 \phi^m$
As the first case, the dissipation coefficient is taken as a power-law function of tachyon field, i.e. $\Gamma = \Gamma_0 \phi^m$, where $\Gamma_0$ and m are constants. From Eq. (8), the time derivative of the tachyon field becomes
The first slow-roll parameter $\epsilon$ is determined by substituting the introduced dissipation function into Eq. (10). Evidently, inflation ends as the slow-roll parameter $\epsilon$ reaches unity; therefore, the scalar field is read as
where the scalar spectral index only depends on the constants n and m. In contrast, by integrating Eq. (18) and substituting the result into Eq. (17), the power-spectrum reads as
Subsequently, using Eqs. (23) and (24), the power spectrum and tensor-to-scalar ratio are obtained at the time of horizon crossing. The first conclusion that can be made from Eqs. (28) and (29) is that the constant n must be positive, otherwise there will be an imaginary value for the parameters ${\cal{P}}_s$ and r, which is unphysical. Hence, to constrain the free parameters of the model, the results at the time of horizon crossing must be examined with data. At this time, the scalar spectral index depends on both parameters n and m. The situation is different for the tensor-to-scalar ratio, where besides n and m, the other two constants $\Gamma_0$ and $H_0$ also appear in the definition of $r(t = t_{\star})$. Based on Planck data, an exact value for the amplitude of the scalar perturbations exists, and there are also several statements regarding the energy scale of inflation. Thus, from the energy scale of inflation, Eq. (12), the constant $H_0$ is determined as③
where $V^{\star}$ is the energy scale of inflation. Substituting the obtained $H_0$ in the amplitude of the scalar perturbations, $\Gamma_0$ is extracted as
$\Gamma_0 = \left( {\cal{P}}_s^{\star} \over D \right)^{\textstyle{4(m+2) \over 8m+18n-4}},$
From Eqs. (30) and (31), both perturbation parameters $n_s$ and r depend only on n and m. Utilizing the Planck $r-n_s$ diagram, a set of points is obtained for n and m, where any $(n,m)$ point in the set result of the model is in good consistency with observation. Fig. 1 illustrates this set of points, where the dark blue color determines the $(n,m)$ points for which our model is in agreement with 68% CL of Planck $r-n_s$ diagram, whereas the light blue color is related to 95% CL. Figure1. (color online) Parametric plot of $(n,m)$.
The formulation is not complete. To build the model, we made two main assumptions, and we aim to determine whether the assumptions remain valid for all $(n,m)$ points in Fig. 1. Subsequently, it is important to verify these assumptions for the whole duration of inflation. In the first postulation, that is in the warm inflationary scenario, the thermal fluctuations must dominate over the quantum fluctuations, described by the condition $T > H$. The second assumption is that the model is restricted to the SDR, where the dissipative parameter is larger than unity, i.e., $Q > 1$. Therefore, we are interested only in the values of $(n,m)$ that satisfactorily pass the conditions and simultaneously put the model in agreement with data. These values are depicted in Fig. 2. Figure2. (color online) Parametric plot of $(n,m)$, where for each point of this area, the model perfectly meets the observational data, and main assumptions of the model are properly satisfied.
Although at the first step, a larger range for the parameters n and m can be found, the range is tightened by imposing the model conditions. The final result shows that only for a small range of the parameter $(n,m)$, the model comes to an agreement with the data and simultaneously satisfies the aforementioned conditions. The behavior of $T/H$ and the dissipative parameter Q are depicted in Figs. 3 and 4 for different values of n and m. With passing time and approaching the end of the inflation, both of these parameters exhibit an increasing trend. Figure3. (color online) Behavior of $T/H$ during inflation for different values of n and m selected from Fig. 2. The plots indicate that both conditions $T/H > 1$ and $Q \gg 1$ are perfectly satisfied.
Figure4. (color online) Behavior of Q during inflation for different values of n and m selected from Fig. 2. The plots indicate that both conditions $T/H > 1$ and $Q \gg 1$ are perfectly satisfied.
Table 1 lists the numerical results for the main perturbation parameters, $T/H$ and the dissipative parameter Q for different values of n and m, presented in Fig. 2.
n
m
$\phi_{\star}$
$\phi_e$
$\Gamma_0$
$H_0$
$n_s$
r
$T/H$
Q
$0.5765$
$-1.582$
$105.91$
$0.9120$
$1.06 \times 10^{3}$
$6.86 \times 10^{-4}$
$0.9765$
$1.27 \times 10^{-8}$
$14.51$
$21.91$
$0.5271$
$-1.551$
$89.43$
$0.6551$
$9.96\times 10^{2}$
$8.42 \times 10^{-4}$
$0.9732$
$5.43 \times 10^{-9}$
$13.87$
$34.70$
$0.4741$
$-1.528$
$105.14$
$0.6093$
$8.14 \times 10^{2}$
$8.81 \times 10^{-4}$
$0.9689$
$1.10 \times 10^{-9}$
$15.65$
$27.61$
$0.4247$
$-1.502$
$90.33$
$0.4193$
$7.62 \times 10^{2}$
$1.05 \times 10^{-3}$
$0.9650$
$4.53 \times 10^{-10}$
$15.04$
$41.05$
$0.3753$
$-1.479$
$81.04$
$0.2891$
$6.99 \times 10^{2}$
$1.22 \times 10^{-3}$
$0.9607$
$1.70 \times 10^{-10}$
$14.73$
$54.94$
$0.3295$
$-1.448$
$52.73$
$0.1506$
$7.46 \times 10^{2}$
$1.54 \times 10^{-3}$
$0.9572$
$1.64 \times 10^{-10}$
$12.22$
$140.2$
$1$
$2$
$52.07$
$16.36$
$1.60 \times 10^{-2}$
$1.06 \times 10^{-4}$
$1.0207$
$4.23 \times 10^{7}$
$10.00$
$2631$
$2$
$1$
$60.90$
$21.97$
$4.77 \times 10^{-1}$
$3.26 \times 10^{-6}$
$1.0298$
$6.75 \times 10^{13}$
$9.15$
$799.4$
$2$
$0$
$381.86$
$112.87$
$4.37 \times 10^{-1}$
$1.12 \times 10^{-7}$
$1.0305$
$9.82 \times 10^{16}$
$20.82$
$8.88$
Table1.Numerical results of case.
The last three rows of the table represent the choices of n and m in the canonical cases. Fig. 2 shows that these values are out of the range; therefore, the results are not consistent with observational data. Table 1 represents the numerical result, where the scalar spectral index is found to be larger than unity, and the tensor-to-scalar ratio is very large, and confirms our first conclusion. It is crucial for any inflationary model to verify whether the inflation ends at all. In this regard, the evolution of the slow-roll parameter $\epsilon$ is considered. Fig. 5 portrays the behavior of $\epsilon$ versus the number of e-fold for different values of n and m. The plot states that $\epsilon$ increases with time and approaches the end of inflation. Eventually, it arrives at one, stating that inflation ends, and the Universe exits from the accelerated expansion phase. Figure5. (color online) Behavior of slow-roll parameter $\epsilon$ versus number of e-fold for different values of n and v selected from Fig. 2.
23.2.Second case: $\Gamma := \Gamma(\phi,T)$ -->
3.2.Second case: $\Gamma := \Gamma(\phi,T)$
In this section, we consider a more general case, where the dissipation coefficient is a function of both the tachyon field and the temperature. A common choice is [101, 106, 107]
$\Gamma = \Gamma_0\dfrac{T^m}{\phi^{m-1}}.$
(32)
The temperature of the fluid could be found in terms of the tachyon field from the following relation
where the time derivative of the field is obtained from Eq. (8). Using the definition of the dissipation coefficient, the temperature is expressed in terms of the field as
The scalar field at the end of inflation is derived from the relation $\epsilon = 1$, which indicates the end of acceleration expansion phase. Subsequently, following the same process as the previous case, the scalar field at the time of horizon crossing is achieved, such that
$\begin{split}\phi _ * ^{b + n + 2} =& \phi _e^{b + n + 2}\;\left( {1 + \frac{{b + n + 2}}{n}\;N} \right) \equiv \phi _e^{b + n + 2}\tilde N,\\\phi _e^{b + n + 2} =& \frac{{2{n^2}}}{{{{\bar \Gamma }_0}{H_0}}}.\end{split}$
(36)
Substituting the above relation in the definition of the slow-roll parameters, one could compute these parameters at the horizon crossing time in terms of the number of e-fold as
$\epsilon^\ast = \tilde{N}^{-1},$
(37)
$\eta^\ast = {n-1 \over n} \; \epsilon^\ast,$
(38)
$\beta^\ast = {b \over n} \; \epsilon^\ast.$
(39)
Inserting the above parameters in Eq. (19), the scalar spectral index is obtained
which states that the parameter depends on the constants n and m. The power-spectrum of the scalar perturbation and tensor-to-ratio have the same form as obtained in Eqs. (28) and (29), where $\Gamma_0$ and m are replaced by $\tilde{\Gamma}_0$ and b, respectively. As in the first case, the energy scale of the inflation is utilized to determine the constant $H_0$, which arrives to the following expression
Applying the above relation in the power-spectrum of the scalar perturbation, and computing the power-spectrum for $t = t_{\star}$, the other constant of the model can be specified, such that
From Eqs. (41) and (42), the tensor-to-scalar perturbation (43) depends on the constants n and m. In contrast, the scalar spectral index (40) depends only on these two constants. Using the Planck $r-n_s$ diagram, the valid values of n and m are elucidated, for which the model prediction about the scalar spectral index and tensor-to-scalar ratio perfectly meet the observational data. These values are plotted in Fig. 6. Figure6. (color online) Parametric plot of $ (n,m)$.
The following step is to examine whether these values of $(n,m)$ are consistent with the assumptions, i.e. $T/H>1$ and $Q\gg 1$, that were used for building the model. The fluid temperature is given in Eq. (34), and the dissipative parameter for the case is read as
Inserting $\phi_{\star}$ and using Eqs. (41) and (42), both temperature and the dissipative parameter are expressed in terms of the constants n and m. Further investigation indicates that the obtained range of $(n,m)$, that has been plotted in Fig. 6, can perfectly satisfy both conditions. To gain a better insight, Figs. 7 and 8 display the behavior of $T/H$ and Q, respectively, for different choices of n and m. The figures clearly display that $T/H$ increases with passing time and approaches the end of inflation, while the dissipative parameter Q exhibits completely different behavior, in that it initiates from high values and subsequently decreases. However, the most important point is that during the inflation, these parameters are always significantly larger than one, and the conditions $T/H > 1$ and $Q > 1$ are perfectly satisfied. Figure7. (color online) Behavior of $ T/H$ during inflation for different values of n and m selected from Fig. 6. The plots indicate that both conditions $ T/H > 1$ and $ Q \gg 1$ are perfectly satisfied.
Figure8. (color online) Behavior of Q during inflation for different values of n and m selected from Fig. 6. The plots indicate that both conditions $ T/H > 1$ and $ Q \gg 1$ are perfectly satisfied.
To gain a numerical insight on the result, the perturbation parameters of the model, as well as the temperature and dissipative parameters are presented in Table 2, where they are found out for different values of n and m.
n
m
$\phi_{\star}$
$\phi_e$
$\Gamma_0$
$H_0$
$n_s$
r
$T/H$
Q
$0.6547$
$3.23$
$3.74 \times 10^{-6}$
$1.72 \times 10^{-8}$
$1.06 \times 10^{19}$
$3.26 \times 10^{-3}$
$0.9703$
$0.0161$
$319.35$
$1.04 \times 10^{23}$
$0.7175$
$3.66$
$5.13 \times 10^{-6}$
$1.47 \times 10^{-8}$
$2.10 \times 10^{18}$
$5.69 \times 10^{-3}$
$0.9662$
$0.0046$
$2019.82$
$6.50 \times 10^{23}$
$0.7889$
$4.02$
$2.06 \times 10^{-6}$
$5.23 \times 10^{-9}$
$2.12 \times 10^{17}$
$0.0279$
$0.9675$
$0.0005$
$3782.75$
$1.27 \times 10^{24}$
$0.8374$
$4.35$
$1.55 \times 10^{-6}$
$3.06 \times 10^{-9}$
$3.02 \times 10^{16}$
$0.0667$
$0.9665$
$0.0002$
$9406.08$
$1.39 \times 10^{24}$
$0.9202$
$4.89$
$4.86 \times 10^{-7}$
$7.48 \times 10^{-10}$
$2.20\times 10^{14}$
$0.5883$
$0.9678$
$0.0003$
$10646.8$
$5.99 \times 10^{22}$
$0.9630$
$5.25$
$3.38 \times 10^{-7}$
$3.99 \times 10^{-10}$
$9.89 \times 10^{12}$
$1.5566$
$0.9673$
$0.0011$
$12190$
$3.31 \times 10^{21}$
$2$
$1$
$6.55$
$1.93$
$2.04 \times 10^{11}$
$2.12 \times 10^{-8}$
$1.0305$
$6.00 \times 10^{-27}$
$396.85$
$7.26 \times 10^{9}$
$1$
$-1$
$3.98$
$1.43$
$3.71 \times 10^{2}$
$2.34 \times 10^{-7}$
$1.0217$
$8.69 \times 10^{-15}$
$658.79$
$3.32 \times 10^{14}$
Table2.Numerical results of case.
The typical values of n and m that we encounter in the canonical cases are listed in the last two rows of Table 2. Based on Fig. 6, these points are beyond our range of interest, and the results are expected to be inconsistent with observation. Table 2 lists the numerical results and indicates that although the predicted r agrees with the data, the result for the scalar spectral index is larger than unity and clearly in tension with data. Consequently, these values of n and m are not suitable for the presented model. To verify the smooth exit of inflation, the evolution of the first slow-roll parameter $\epsilon$ is investigated and plotted in Fig. 9. $\epsilon$ increases by approaching the end of inflation, and eventually reaches the value of one. Therefore, inflation ends at this time, and the universe exits the inflationary stage. Figure9. (color online) Behavior of slow-roll parameter $ \epsilon$ with respect to number of e-fold for different values of n and m selected from Fig. 6.
4.Discussing swampland criteriaOne of the best candidates to describe quantum gravity may be string theory, which provides a landscape containing consistent low-energy EFTs that can formulate a quantum theory. However, all other low-energy EFTs exist a bigger region known as a swampland. The EFTs that live on swampland contradict the string theory. Building a model based on the consistent EFT, which lives on the landscape, requires a mechanism to separate the consistent and inconsistent EFTs. These efforts resulted in several conjectures, where the swampland criteria represent the most recent proposal. The swampland criteria have been introduced in [48], and they were subsequently refined in [49]. In brief, they are listed as follows: ● C1: Distance conjecture: it is an upper bound that confines the scalar field excursion in the field space as
$\Delta \phi \leqslant \delta \sim {\cal{O}}(1).$
(45)
● C2: de Sitter conjecture: it imposes a lower bound on the gradient of the potential, stating that slope of a positive potential, $V>0$, of the scalar field should satisfy the following bound
${|V_{\phi}| \over V} \geqslant c \sim {\cal{O}}(1),$
(46)
and the refined version of this conjecture is given by
This is given in Planck units, where $M_p = 1$. The exact value of the constant c depends on the detail of the compaction, which states that it could be larger than $\sqrt{2}$. However, further investigation shows that it could be smaller than unity, even of order ${\cal{O}}(0.1)$, and the important criterium is that it must be positive [50]. Inflation is believed to occur at the energy level below the Planck energy scales, where it can be described by low-energy EFT [51-53]. Therefore, it is in our interest to build the inflationary model in the framework of a consistent low-energy EFT that stands in the landscape. In this regard, despite having an agreement with the observational data, which have been investigated previously, the inflationary model should also satisfy two swampland criteria. In the previous sections, the warm inflationary scenario was considered in SDR, where the tachyon field had the role of the inflaton. In the previous sections, the constants of the model were determined in comparison with the observational data. Here, we determine whether the obtained results put the model in consistency with the swampland criteria. In the first case, where the dissipation coefficient is picked out as a power-law function of the scalar field, a narrow range is obtained for the constants n and m, for whose values the model is in agreement with observational data. However, for these values of n and m, the difference of the scalar field at the times of horizon crossing and end of inflation is of order ${\cal{Q}}(10)$ or sometimes even larger, i.e., ${\cal{Q}}(10^2)$, which is evident from Table 1. Therefore, it is concluded that although the model is in good consistency with observational data, it does not satisfy the first swampland criterion. The result is different for the second case of the dissipation coefficient, where the parameter $\Gamma$ is a function of both the scalar field and the temperature. The determined values of n and m state that the scalar field values at the end of inflation and also at the beginning of the horizon crossing time are smaller than unity, and Table 2 shows this conclusion, which in turn indicates that the field excursion during inflation is smaller than unity. Therefore, the first swampland criterion is satisfied for the second case of the presented model. The second criterion has received more attention in previous studies, as it seems to be in direct tension with one of the fundamental assumptions of the standard inflationary scenario. The standard inflationary scenario is typically explained by means of the slow-roll parameters. The slow-roll parameter $\epsilon$ is defined as $\epsilon \simeq V'^2 / 2 V^2$, which must be smaller than unity to achieve an accelerated expansion phase. In contrast, based on the second swampland criterion, it must be larger than a constant c, whichis of order of unity; however, $c \approx 0.1$ could also be employed. Assuming the latent value, the slow-roll parameter $\epsilon$ is obtained as $\epsilon = 0.005$ (for the best case), which is sufficiently small to yield a desire accelerated expansion phase. However, this problem is encountered upon examination of the tensor-to-scalar ratio r with data. Based on the standard inflation model, the parameter is given by $r = 16 \epsilon$, which for the aforementioned value of $\epsilon$ is acquired at approximately $r = 0.08$, which is in tension with observational data. The problem might be solved for the generalized model of inflation, such as k-essence and multi-field inflation. In the k-essence model of inflation, the tensor-to-scalar ratio is modified as $r = 16 c_s \epsilon$, where $c_s$ is the sound speed that could be on the order of $0.1$ [50]. Furthermore, warm inflation, particularly when the model is considered in SDR, could suit the swampland criteria. In warm inflation, the first-slow-roll parameter is generalized as $\epsilon = \epsilon_{\phi} / Q$, where $\epsilon_{\phi}$ is the same slow-roll parameter that we have in cold inflation, i.e., $\epsilon_{\phi} = V'^2 / 2 V^2$, and Q is the dissipative parameter, which is significantly larger than unity in SDR. The second swampland criterion implies that $\epsilon_{\phi} = Q \epsilon > c^2/2$. Here, we employed the tachyon field as the inflaton, where the first slow-roll inflation is given by Eq. (10) in terms of the Hubble parameter. The potential of the field is related to the Hubble parameter through the relation $V(\phi) = 3H^2 \sqrt{1 - 2 \epsilon /3Q}$. As the first slow-roll parameter $\epsilon$ is small, also due to the fact that we are working in SDR, the last term can be ignored, such that we obtain, to a good approximation, $V(\phi) = 3 H^2$. Therefore, the gradient of the potential is given by $V' / V = 2 H' / H$, and by applying Eq. (10), the second criterion is read as
According to the second swampland criterion, the gradient of the potential must be larger than the constant c that is on the order of unity. From Table 1, which lists the values of the parameters of the model for the first case of the dissipation parameter, implies that it is unlikely to arrive at consistency between the model and the criterion. To gain a better understanding, Fig. 10 displays the gradient of the potential with respect to the number of e-fold N from the beginning of inflation to the end. It clearly indicates that the potential gradient increases by approaching the end of inflation; however, it never reaches one. Figure10. (color online) Behavior of $ \Delta V/V$ with respect to number of e-fold during the inflation.
The situation is different for the second case, which is mostly because of the high value of the dissipative parameter Q for the case. The potential gradient of the field for this case is depicted in Fig. 11, where it is clearly realized that $\Delta V/V$ is larger than one during the whole inflation duration, and the second swampland criterion is satisfied. Figure11. (color online) Behavior of $ \Delta V/V$ with respect to number of e-fold during inflation.
In brief, the first choice of the dissipation coefficient for the tachyon scalar field is in excellent agreement with observational data; however, it satisfies none of the swampland criteria. In contrast, the second choice of the dissipation coefficient yields our desired result; it is in agreement with observational data and simultaneously satisfies the swampland criteria.
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