Related papers: Non-Gaussianities in New Ekpyrotic Cosmology

We study two-field bouncing cosmologies in which primordial perturbations are created in either an ekpyrotic or a matter-dominated contraction phase. We use a non-singular ghost condensate bounce model to follow the perturbations through…

In this paper we calculate additional contributions to that part of the non-Gaussianity of the curvature perturbation, which come from the three-point correlator of the field perturbations. We estimate this contribution in the following…

It has been shown that primordial tensor non-Gaussianities from a cubic Weyl action with a non-dynamical coupling are suppressed by the so-called slow-roll parameter in a conventional framework of slow-roll inflation. In this paper, we…

In [arXiv:1102.1513] we introduced an inflationary scenario, Non-Abelian Gauge Field Inflation or gauge-flation for short, in which slow-roll inflation is driven by non-Abelian gauge field minimally coupled to gravity. We present a more…

The entropic mechanism for producing nearly scale-invariant density perturbations in a contracting ekpyrotic universe relies on having an unstable scalar potential. Here we develop a variant of this mechanism (recently proposed by Qiu, Gao…

We examine the effective theory of single-field inflation in the limit where the scalar perturbations propagate with a small speed of sound. In this case the non-linearly realized time-translation symmetry of the Lagrangian implies large…

With the new cosmological data gathered over the last few years, the inflationary paradigm has seen its predictions largely unchallenged. A recent proposal, called the ekpyrotic scenario, was argued to be a viable competitor as it was…

Inflationary cosmology with a preceding nonsingular bounce can lead to changes on the primordial density fluctuations. One significant prediction is that the amplitude of the power spectrum may undergo a jump at a critical scale. In this…

Why is non-Gaussianity interesting? One of generic predictions from inflationary scenarios is that primordial fluctuations are exactly Gaussian in linear order; however, the non-linearity in the inflation will produce weak non-Gaussianity.…

There is increasing evidence from string theory that effective field theories are only reliable over approximately sub-Planckian field excursions. The two most promising effective models for early universe cosmology, inflation and…

Loop quantum cosmology (LQC) provides a resolution of the classical big bang singularity in the deep Planck era. The evolution, prior to the usual slow-roll inflation, naturally generates excited states at the onset of the slow-roll…

If cosmic inflation suffered tiny time-dependent deviations from the slow-roll regime, these would induce the existence of small scale-dependent features imprinted in the primordial spectra, with their shapes and sizes revealing information…

We propose a new scenario for early cosmology, where an inflationary de Sitter phase is obtained with a ghost condensate. The transition to radiation dominance is triggered by the ghost itself, without any slow-roll potential. Density…

We present theoretical and observational studies of non-Gaussian fluctuations in CMB, by using the angular bispectrum and trispectrum. We predict the primary angular bispectrum from inflation, and forecast how well we can measure the…

The no-boundary proposal provides a compelling theory for the initial conditions of our universe. We study the implications of such initial conditions for ekpyrotic and cyclic cosmologies. These cosmologies allow for the existence of a new…

Primordial non-Gaussianities provide an important test of inflationary models. Although the Planck CMB experiment has produced strong limits on non-Gaussianity on scales of clusters, there is still room for considerable non-Gaussianity on…

We construct explicit models of classical primordial standard clocks in an alternative to inflation, namely the slowly contracting ekpyrotic scenario. We study the phenomenology of massive spectator fields added to a state-of-the-art…

If the initial quantum state of the primordial perturbations broke rotational invariance, that would be seen as a statistical anisotropy in the angular correlations of the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR) temperature…

Measurements of CMB anisotropy and, more recently, polarization have played a very important role allowing precise determination of various parameters of the `standard' cosmological model. The expectation of the paradigm of inflation and…

These notes present a detailed introduction to Maldacena's calculation of the three-point function generated by the simplest class of inflationary models: those with a single inflaton field whose potential satisfies the slow-roll conditions…