Low Scale Inflation at High Energy Colliders and Meson Factories
  Inflation occurring at energy densities less than (10$^{14}$ GeV)$^4$
produces tensor perturbations too small to be measured by cosmological surveys.
However, we show that it is possible to probe low scale inflation by measuring
the mass of the inflaton at low energy experiments. Detection prospects and
cosmological constraints are determined for low scale quartic hilltop models of
inflation paired with a curvaton field, which imprints the spectrum of scalar
perturbations observed in large scale structure and on the cosmic microwave
background. With cosmological constraints applied, low scale quartic inflation
at energies GeV--PeV, can be mapped to an MeV--TeV mass inflaton resonance,
discoverable through a Higgs portal coupling at upcoming collider and meson
decay experiments. It is demonstrated that low scale inflatons can have
detectably large couplings to Standard Model particles through a Higgs portal,
permitting prompt reheating after inflation, without spoiling, through
radiative corrections to the inflaton's self-coupling, the necessary flatness
of a low scale inflationary potential. A characteristic particle spectrum for a
quartic inflaton-curvaton pair is identified: to within an order of magnitude,
the mass of the curvaton can be predicted from the mass of the inflaton, and
vice-versa. Low scale inflation Higgs portal sensitivity targets are found for
experiments like the LHC, SHiP, BEPC, and KEKB.
