LEPP Particle Theory Seminar. Daniel Green. Institute for Advanced Study.

A Field Range Bound for General Single-Field Inflation

I will discuss the implications of a detection of primordial tensor fluctuations for general single-field inflation. Using the effective theory of inflation, I will propose a model independent generalization of the Lyth bound.  We will find that under minimal assumptions, the field range is always super-Planckian when the tensor modes are detectable.