CMB and reheating constraints to α-attractor inflationary models (1602.07914v2)

Abstract: After Planck 2013, a broad class of inflationary models called \alpha-attractors was developed which has universal observational predictions. For small values of the parameter \alpha, the models have good consistency with the recent CMB data. In this work, we first calculate analytically (and verify numerically) the predictions of these models for spectral index, n_s and tensor-to-scalar ratio, r and then using BICEP2/Keck 2015 data we impose constraints on \alpha-attractors. Then, we study the reheating in \alpha-attractors. The reheating temperature, T_{re} and the number of e-folds during reheating, N_{re} are calculated as functions of n_s. Using these results, we determine the range of free parameter \alpha for two clasees of \alpha-attractors which satisfy the constraints of recent CMB data.