Constraints on non-canonical chaotic inflation from ACT DR6 and BICEP/Keck data

In this study, we precisely evaluated the feasibility of the chaotic inflation model within a non-canonical kinetic framework. By applying the slow-roll approximation and imposing constraints on the equilateral non-Gaussianity f N L e q u i l , we imposed constraints on the feasible range of the potential index n . We established physical bounds for the non-canonical parameter α . To obtain precise parameter constraints, we solved the primordial perturbation equations numerically and conducted a rigorous MCMC analysis by using a comprehensive joint P-ACT-LB-BK18 dataset. For these potentials n = 1 / 3 , 2/3, and 1, our results respectively tightly limit α to the levels of 8 . 8 − 2.8 + 1.6 , 11 . 7 − 2.6 + 1.7 , and 16 . 4 − 7.0 + 3.7 , within the corresponding 1 σ confidence intervals. Meanwhile, the required number of e -foldings naturally converges to N ≃ 54, without the need for fine-tuning. These findings confirm that non-standard mechanisms can resurrect excluded chaotic inflation models within the 1 σ allowed regions of high-precision cosmological data.

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Publication Details

Journal
Physics Letters B
Published
2026-05-01
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2026.140532
Primary Topic
Cosmology and Gravitation Theories
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Constraints on non-canonical chaotic inflation from ACT DR6 and BICEP/Keck data

Chen-Hao Wu, Ya-Peng Hu, Wei Yang
Physics Letters B
Cosmology and Gravitation Theories
article

Constraints on non-canonical chaotic inflation from ACT DR6 and BICEP/Keck data

Chen-Hao Wu, Ya-Peng Hu, Wei Yang
article en

Abstract

In this study, we precisely evaluated the feasibility of the chaotic inflation model within a non-canonical kinetic framework. By applying the slow-roll approximation and imposing constraints on the equilateral non-Gaussianity f N L e q u i l , we imposed constraints on the feasible range of the potential index n . We established physical bounds for the non-canonical parameter α . To obtain precise parameter constraints, we solved the primordial perturbation equations numerically and conducted a rigorous MCMC analysis by using a comprehensive joint P-ACT-LB-BK18 dataset. For these potentials n = 1 / 3 , 2/3, and 1, our results respectively tightly limit α to the levels of 8 . 8 − 2.8 + 1.6 , 11 . 7 − 2.6 + 1.7 , and 16 . 4 − 7.0 + 3.7 , within the corresponding 1 σ confidence intervals. Meanwhile, the required number of e -foldings naturally converges to N ≃ 54, without the need for fine-tuning. These findings confirm that non-standard mechanisms can resurrect excluded chaotic inflation models within the 1 σ allowed regions of high-precision cosmological data.

Physics Letters B
Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (CN), Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (CN)
National Natural Science Foundation of China
Decent work and economic growth
Openalex Percentile: Top 5%
Cosmology and Gravitation Theories
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