Liberating the inflaton from primordial spectrum constraints

I discuss an inflationary scenario where the spectral index of the seeded primordial spectrum is not directly determined by the nature of the inflationary stage. In particular, if a scalar field acquires an appropriate time-dependent mass, it is possible to generate an adiabatic, Gaussian scale invariant spectrum of density perturbations during any stage of inflation. As an illustration, I present a simple model where the time-dependent mass arises from the coupling of the inflaton to a second scalar. The mechanism I propose might help to implement a successful inflationary scenario in particle physics theories that do not yield slow-roll potentials.