Editing Inflaton (section)

== Field quanta ==
Just like every other quantum field, excitations of the inflaton field are expected to be quantized. The field quanta of the inflaton field are known as '''inflatons'''. Depending on the modeled potential energy density, the inflaton field's [[ground state]] might, or might not, be zero.

The term ''inflaton'' follows the typical style of other quantum particles’ names – such as [[photon]], [[gluon]], [[boson]], and [[fermion]] – deriving from the word ''inflation''. The term was first used in a paper by {{harvp|Nanopoulos|Olive|Srednicki|1983}}.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Nanopoulos |first1=D.V. |author1-link=Dimitri Nanopoulos |last2=Olive |first2=D.A. |author2-link=Keith Olive |last3=Srednicki |first3=M. <!-- |author3-link=Mark Srednicki --> |year=1983 |title=After primordial inflation |volume=127 |issue=1–2 |journal=[[Physics Letters B]] |pages=30–34 |doi=10.1016/0370-2693(83)91624-6 |bibcode=1983PhLB..127...30N |url=https://cds.cern.ch/record/144126/files/198305219.pdf}}</ref>
The nature of the inflaton field is currently not known. One of the obstacles for narrowing its properties is that current quantum theory is not able to correctly predict the observed vacuum energy, based on the particle content of a chosen theory (see [[Cosmological constant problem|vacuum catastrophe]]).

Atkins (2012) suggested that it is possible that no new field is necessary – that a modified version of the [[Higgs field]] could function as an inflaton.<ref>{{cite web |last=Atkins |first=Michael |year=2011 |title=Could the Higgs boson be the inflaton? |publisher=[[CERN]] |place=[[Meyrin]], CH |url=http://indico.cern.ch/event/180122/material/slides/0.pdf |via=cern.ch }}</ref>