BICEP2 in corpuscular description of inflation

A corpuscular quantum description of inflation shows that there is no fundamental problem with trans-Planckian excursions of the inflaton field up to about 100 Planck masses, with the upper bound coming from the corpuscular quantum effects. In this description, the r parameter measures the ratio of occupation numbers of gravitons versus inflatons, which, according to BICEP2, was roughly a half at the time of 60 e-foldings prior to the end of inflation. We stress that in a non-Wilsonian UV self-completion of gravity, any trans-Planckian mode coupled to the inflaton is a black hole. Unlike the Wilsonian case, integrating them out gives an exponentially suppressed effect and is unable to prevent trans-Planckian excursions of the inflaton field.