BSM

Abstract

We investigate the validity of effective field theory methods and the decoupling of heavy fields during inflation. Considering models of inflation in which the inflaton is coupled to heavy degrees of freedom, we find that violations of decoupling are absent unless there is a breakdown of the slow-roll conditions. Next we allow for a temporary departure from inflation resulting in a period of non-adiabaticity during which effective field theory methods are known to fail. We find that the locality of the event and energy conservation lead to a tight bound on the size of the effects of the heavy field.