Related Experiment Video
Updated: Apr 12, 2026

Magnetically Induced Rotating Rayleigh-Taylor Instability
Published on: March 3, 2017
Spinodal instabilities and super-Planckian excursions in natural inflation
Andreas Albrecht1, R Holman2, Benoit J Richard1
1Department of Physics, University of California at Davis, One Shields Avenue, Davis, California 95616, USA.
Abstract:
Models such as Natural Inflation that use pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone bosons as the inflaton are attractive for many reasons. However, they typically require trans-Planckian field excursions ΔΦ>MPl, due to the need for an axion decay constant f>MPl to have both a sufficient number of e-folds and values of ns,r consistent with data. Such excursions would in general require the addition of all other higher dimension operators consistent with symmetries, thus disrupting the required flatness of the potential and rendering the theory nonpredictive. We show that in the case of Natural Inflation, the existence of spinodal instabilities (modes with tachyonic masses) can modify the inflaton equations of motion to the point that versions of the model with f
Related Concept Videos
Atomic Nuclei: Nuclear Relaxation Processes
Oscillations about an Equilibrium Position
Forced Oscillations
Fermi Level Dynamics
Electron affinity in semiconductors refers to the energy gap between the minimum of its conduction band and the vacuum level and it is a critical parameter in determining how easily a semiconductor can accept additional electrons.
The work...
Atomic Nuclei: Nuclear Spin State Population Distribution
¹H NMR: Interpreting Distorted and Overlapping Signals
As Δν decreases and the signals move closer, the doublets appear increasingly distorted. The intensities of the inner lines increase at the cost of those of the outer lines as the signals are...

