Cosmological consequences of a scalar field with oscillating equation of state. III. Unifying inflation with dark energy and small tensor-to-scalar ratio

Abstract

We investigate the inflationary consequences of the oscillating dark energy model proposed by Ti\'an [\href{https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.101.063531}{Phys. Rev. D {\bf 101}, 063531 (2020)}], which aims to solve the cosmological coincidence problem with multi-accelerating Universe (MAU). We point out that the inflationary dynamics belong to slow-roll inflation. The spectral index of scalar perturbations and the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$ are shown to be consistent with current \textit{Planck} measurements. Especially, this model predicts $r\sim10^{-7}$, which is far below the observation limits. This result motivates us to explore the smallness of $r$ in the general MAU. We propose a quintessential generalization of the original model and prove $r<0.01$ in general. The null detection to date of primordial gravitational waves provides a circumstantial evidence for the MAU. After the end of inflation, the scalar field rolls toward infinity instead of a local minimum, and meanwhile its equation of state is oscillating with an average value larger than $1/3$. In this framework, we show that gravitational particle creation at the end of inflation is capable of reheating the Universe.