27–30 Apr 2026
Palais des papes, Avignon
Europe/Paris timezone

Inflation beyond perturbation theory

27 Apr 2026, 14:00
20m
Chambre du Trésorier (Palais des papes, Avignon)

Chambre du Trésorier

Palais des papes, Avignon

Speaker

Sébastien Renaux-Petel

Description

The wavefunction of the universe contains the full information about primordial fluctuations. I will show how to determine it in a non-perturbative manner in a large class of inflationary scenarios, using the example of models with small and rapid oscillations in the inflaton potential. Our study reveals a profound asymmetry between maxima and minima of the density fluctuations, and indicates that even minute oscillations give large effects on the tail of the distribution. Eventually, I will describe a qualitatively new regime in which most of the information of inflationary correlators appears in higher-order correlation functions with large n, at odds with conventional wisdom.

Author

Sébastien Renaux-Petel

Presentation materials