TH BSM Forum

The Trans-Planckian Censorship Conjecture and its Implications for Inflationary Cosmology

by Kai Ruven Schmitz (CERN)

Europe/Zurich
4/2-037 - TH meeting room (CERN)

4/2-037 - TH meeting room

CERN

18
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Description

The "trans-Planckian censorship conjecture" (TCC) is the newest member in the family of quantum gravity swampland conjectures. It nullifies the long-standing "trans-Planckian problem of inflationary cosmology" by stating that, in any consistent theory of quantum gravity, quantum fluctuations on sub-Planckian length scales are forbidden to exit the Hubble horizon during inflation. The TCC results in severe constraints on the phenomenology of inflation, including tight upper bounds on the tensor-to-scalar ratio, number of e-folds, and energy scale of inflation. In this talk, I will discuss these TCC bounds on inflation, illustrate their connection to other quantum gravity conjectures, and present a minimal model of inflation that simultaneously satisfies all experimental and theoretical constraints. I will conclude by outlining a few possible implications of this model for dark matter, quintessence, and the H0 tension.