Instabilities, Point Attractors and Limit Cycles in a Inflationary Universe

Abstract

We study the stability of a scalar inflaton field and analyze its point attractors in the phase space. We show that the value of the inflaton field in the vacuum is a bifurcation parameter and prove the possible existence of a limit cycle by using analytical and numerical arguments.

Comments: Latex, 11 pages, 3 figures (available upon request), to be published in Modern Physics Letters A