Questions about the Curvaton particle

[windy miller]

TL;DR

curvaton

Can anyone give a layperson guide to what the curvaton is ? There is a description of it in wikipedia. but It is not clear from the article why it was postulated. Is there any independent reasons for thinking this curvaton field exists other that to generate the right type of spectrum for certain cosmological models?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curvaton

 

[mathman]

Since there seems to be little or no follow up (since 2011), I suspect it is a dead end.

 

[George Jones]

Since there seems to be little or no follow up (since 2011), I suspect it is a dead end.

Phys. Rev. D 2014
https://arxiv.org/abs/1403.4591

Phys. Rev. D 2018
https://arxiv.org/abs/1712.05364

Phys. Rev. D 2020
https://arxiv.org/abs/1911.07082

Phys. Rev. D is a high-impact, high-quality research journal.

 

[mathman]

3 papers in 9 years doesn't seem like much.

 

[websterling]

3 papers in 9 years doesn't seem like much.

If you search for "curvaton" on the arXiv there are almost 400 papers listed. Many are published in high-impact, high-quality journals.

 

[mathman]

I suggest you look at the abstracts to try to figure out what it is. I have no more idea than you have.