Noun: curvaton
- (cosmology) an scalar field that can generate fluctuations during inflation, but does not itself drive inflation; it generates curvature perturbations at late times after the inflaton field has decayed and the decay products have redshifted away, when the curvaton is the dominant component of the energy density
"The curvaton model provides an alternative mechanism for generating primordial density perturbations"
Encyclopedia: Curvaton