A simple mechanism for the enhancement of the inflationary power spectrum

Abstract

The background evolution in two-field inflation can feature two distinct stages, corresponding to the evolution along two successive field directions. When the second stage occurs at a significantly lower energy scale, the inflationary trajectory includes a sharp transition, accompanied by a series of rapid turns in field space. Fluctuations crossing the Hubble horizon during this turning phase can experience amplification by several orders of magnitude. This mechanism is very intuitive and can be implemented even in simple two-field models. It produces a peak in the scalar power spectrum that can lead to significant abundances of primordial black holes and secondary gravitational waves.