24–28 Jun 2019
CERN
Europe/Zurich timezone
There is a live webcast for this event.

Inflation as an Information Bottleneck

26 Jun 2019, 11:00
30m
500/1-001 - Main Auditorium (CERN)

500/1-001 - Main Auditorium

CERN

400
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Speaker

Alexander Westphal (DESY Hamburg)

Description

We discuss how tools from information theory combined with machine learning a direct map from the microscopic parameters of a string inflation mechanism to the CMB observables allows us to systematically estimate the observable footprint of the theory uncertainty. We demonstrate this using the example mechanism of single-field axion monodromy inflation. We find that inflation acts as an information bottleneck, with a surprising number of microscopic parameters decoupling from the CMB observables.

Presentation materials