The Scale Factor Potential Approach to Inflation

Abstract

We propose a new approach to investigate inflation in a model-independent way, and in particular to elaborate the involved observables, through the introduction of the "scale factor potential". Through its use one can immediately determine the inflation end, which corresponds to its first (and global) minimum. Additionally, we express the inflationary observables in terms of its logarithm, using as independent variable the e-folding number. As an example, we construct a new class of scalar potentials that can lead to the desired spectral index and tensor-to-scalar ratio, namely $n_s \approx 0.965$ and $r \sim 10^{-4}$ for 60 $e$-folds, in agreement with observations.