  Quantum fluctuations of an inflaton field, slow-rolling during inflation are
coupled to metric fluctuations. In conventional four dimensional cosmology one
can calculate the effect of scalar metric perturbations as slow-roll
corrections to the evolution of a massless free field in de Sitter spacetime.
This gives the well-known first-order corrections to the field perturbations
after horizon-exit. If inflaton fluctuations on a four dimensional brane
embedded in a five dimensional bulk spacetime are studied to first-order in
slow-roll then we recover the usual conserved curvature perturbation on
super-horizon scales. But on small scales, at high energies, we find that the
coupling to the bulk metric perturbations cannot be neglected, leading to a
modified amplitude of vacuum oscillations on small scales. This is a large
effect which casts doubt on the reliability of the usual calculation of
inflaton fluctuations on the brane neglecting their gravitational coupling.
