Features in the primordial power spectrum of double D-term inflation

Recently, there has been some interest for building supersymmetric models of double inflation. These models, realistic from a particle physics point of view, predict a broken-scale-invariant power spectrum of primordial cosmological perturbations, that may explain eventual nontrivial features in the present matter power spectrum. In previous works, the primordial spectrum was calculated using analytic slow-roll approximations. However, these models involve a fast second-order phase transition during inflation, with a stage of spinodal instability, and an interruption of slow-roll. For our previous model of double D-term inflation, we simulate numerically the evolution of quantum fluctuations, taking into account the spinodal modes, and we show that the semiclassical approximation can be employed even during the transition, due to the presence of a second inflaton field. The primordial power spectrum possesses a rich structure, and possibly, a non-Gaussian spike on observable scales. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.