Topic: Inflation

Petar Suman explores how higher-order statistics of the cosmic microwave background connect inflationary theory to observations. Although single-field inflation explains the origin of primordial fluctuations, its particle-physics mechanism remains uncertain. The first part examines the cosmological-collider programme: massive fields during inflation can leave oscillatory signatures in primordial non-Gaussianity, allowing measurements to constrain the masses and spins of early-universe particles. The second treats inflation as an open quantum system. An open effective field theory describes dis

This research panel explores how large and unconventional datasets can produce high-frequency inflation forecasts. Its starting point is renewed concern about inflation following substantial monetary and fiscal stimulus. Alberto Cavallo presents research on real-time inflation measurement. Yves Lemperiere, Adam Rej, José Scheinkman and Michael Woodford join the discussion of alternative data and its economic and financial applications. The panel connects timely measurement with the problem of assessing inflation while conventional economic statistics arrive with a delay.