Inflationary attractors and their measures

Several recent misconceptions about the measure problem in inflation and the nature of inflationary attractors are addressed. We clarify some issues regarding the Hamiltonian dynamics of a flat Friedmann–Lemaître–Robertson–Walker cosmology coupled to a massive scalar field. In particular we show that the focusing of the Liouville measure on attractor solutions is recovered by properly dealing with a gauge degree of freedom related to the rescaling of the spatial volume. Furthermore, we show how the Liouville measure formulated on a surface of constant Hubble rate, together with the assumption of constant a priory probability, induces a non-uniform probability distribution function on any other surfaces of other Hubble rates. The attractor behaviour is seen through the focusing of this function on a narrow range of physical observables. This qualitative behaviour is robust under change of potential and underlying measure. One can then conclude that standard techniques from Hamiltonian dynamics suffice to provide a satisfactory description of attractor solutions and the measure problem for inflationary dynamics.