Logarithmic Duality of the Curvature Perturbation

We study the comoving curvature perturbation R in the single-field inflation models whose potential can be approximated by a piecewise quadratic potential V(φ) by using the δN formalism. We find a general formula for R(δφ,δπ), consisting of a sum of logarithmic functions of the field perturbation δφ and the velocity perturbation δπ at the point of interest, as well as of δπ_{*} at the boundaries of each quadratic piece, which are functions of (δφ,δπ) through the equation of motion. Each logarithmic expression has an equivalent dual expression, due to the second-order nature of the equation of motion for φ. We also clarify the condition under which R(δφ,δπ) reduces to a single logarithm, which yields either the renowned "exponential tail" of the probability distribution function of R or a Gumbel-distribution-like tail.