Related papers: Decoherence due to the Horizon after Inflation
We review aspects of black hole thermodynamics, and show how entanglement of a quantum field between the inside and outside of a horizon can account for the area-proportionality of black hole entropy, provided the field is in its ground…
In a previous paper we proposed a new approach to the beginning of inflation -- a lingering universe. The universe begins in a lingering state with a nearly vanishing Hubble parameter. This calls into question the absolute age of the…
Anomaly-free perturbations of loop quantum cosmology reveal a deformed space-time structure, in which the signature changes when the energy density is $\rho=\rho_c/2$. Furthermore, in loop quantum cosmology, one can obtain an effective…
Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) observations are used to constrain reheating to Standard Model (SM) particles after a period of inflation. As a light spectator field, the SM Higgs boson acquires large field values from its quantum…
In order to go beyond the mean-field approximation, commonly used in the inflationary computations, an identification of the quantum constituents of the inflationary background is made. In particular, the homogeneous scalar field…
We consider reheating in a class of asymptotically safe quantum field theories recently studied in \cite{Litim:2014uca, Litim:2015iea}. These theories allow for an inflationary phase in the very early universe. Inflation ends with a period…
An examination is made of the widely held belief that inflation is the only possible causal mechanism capable of generating density perturbations on scales well in excess of the Hubble radius. A simple proof is given, which relies only on…
Inflation of a universe filled by an elastic continuous medium is considered. Elastic inflation, while capable of describing current observations, is qualitatively different from standard inflationary models. The scalar and tensor modes…
Holographic considerations may provide a glimpse of quantum gravity beyond what is currently accessible by other means. Here we apply holography to inflationary cosmology. We argue that the appropriate holographic bound on the total entropy…
A simple model for the reheating of the universe after inflation is studied in which an essentially inhomogeneous scalar field representing matter is coupled to an essentially homogeneous scalar inflaton field. Through this coupling, the…
We study quantum decoherence of curvature perturbations at superhorizon scales caused by the gravitational nonlinearities. We show that cubic gravitational couplings, constrained by the spatial diffeomorphism invariance, lead to infrared…
This article discusses density perturbations in inflationary models, offering a pedagogical description of how these perturbations are generated by quantum fluctuations in the early universe. A key feature of inflation is that that rapid…
At the end of inflation, the inflaton oscillates at the bottom of its potential and these oscillations trigger a parametric instability for scalar fluctuations with wavelength $\lambda$ comprised in the instability band $(3H m)^{-1/2}…
The notion of inflation (past or present) in standard cosmological models is shown to be a consequence of a sufficiently high second law entropy production from the internal heating of the universal expansion. The longitudinal viscous…
We discuss the infrared divergences that appear to plague cosmological perturbation theory. We show that within the stochastic framework they are regulated by eternal inflation so that the theory predicts finite fluctuations. Using the…
We investigate the inflation and reheating phenomenology in scalar-Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet theory of gravity where a scalar field non-minimally couples with the Gauss-Bonnet (GB) curvature term. Regarding the inflationary phenomenology, we…
Inflation models can have an early phase of inflation where the evolution of the inflaton is driven by quantum fluctuations before entering the phase driven by the slope of the scalar field potential. For a Coleman-Weinberg potential this…
The accumulated energy density of the excited entropy modes in multiple field inflationary scenarios can play the role of dark matter. In the usual case of a flat field space without any turning trajectory, only light superhorizon entropy…
In a broad class of scenarios, inflation is followed by an extended era of matter-dominated expansion during which the inflaton condensate is nonrelativistic on subhorizon scales. During this phase density perturbations grow to the point of…
According to the inflationary scenario of cosmology, all structure in the Universe can be traced back to primordial fluctuations during an accelerated (inflationary) phase of the very early Universe. A conceptual problem arises due to the…