New Effects in Multifield Cosmology Coupled to the Gauss-Bonnet Term

Abstract

We study the rapid-turn regime of multifield cosmology coupled to the Gauss-Bonnet term. We derive the corresponding modified relations between the inflationary Hubble and potential slow-roll parameters, in the two-field case. These relations show that including the Gauss-Bonnet coupling broadens the possibilities for realizing rapid turn inflation and for satisfying the swampland conjectures. We also derive a consistency condition relating the scalar field-space metric to the scalar potential and the Gauss-Bonnet coupling, which two-field slow-roll and rapid-turn inflationary solutions have to satisfy. Finally, we find general conditions under which phantom-like behavior is possible in multifield dark energy models coupled to the Gauss-Bonnet term. Notably, although we do not consider a direct interaction between dark matter and dark energy, dark matter is crucial for the occurrence of a phantom regime.