Related papers: Large tensor-to-scalar ratio and low scale inflati…
We explain why it is so difficult and perhaps even impossible to increase the cosmological tensor-to-scalar perturbation ratio during the post-inflationary evolution of the universe. Nevertheless, contrary to some recent claims, tensor…
Large field inflation models are favored by the recent BICEP2 that has detected gravitational wave modes generated during inflation. We study general large field inflation models for which the potential contains (constant) quadratic and…
The observed baryon asymmetry, as well as potentially an asymmetry in the dark matter sector, can be produced through dissipative particle production during inflation. A distinctive feature of this mechanism is the generation of matter…
Inflation occurring at energy densities less than (10$^{14}$ GeV)$^4$ produces tensor perturbations too small to be measured by cosmological surveys. However, we show that it is possible to probe low scale inflation by measuring the mass of…
Density perturbations in the cosmic microwave background within general $f(R,\phi)$ models of gravity are investigated. The general dynamical equations for the tensor and scalar modes in any $f(R,\phi)$ gravity model are derived. An…
The linear and quadratic perturbations for a scalar-tensor model with non-minimal coupling to curvature, coupling to the Gauss-Bonnet invariant and non-minimal kinetic coupling to the Einstein tensor are developed. The quadratic action for…
We study the realization of cosmic inflation in bigravity theories. By analyzing the evolution of scalar, vector, and tensor perturbations in de Sitter-like spacetimes, we find strong stability constraints on the class of viable vacua…
We study the primordial tensor perturbation produced from the double inflationary scenario with an intermediate break stage. Because of the transitions, the power spectrum deviates from the vacuum one and there will appear oscillatory…
One of the major predictions of inflation is the existence of a stochastic background of cosmological gravitational waves (GW). These gravitational waves can induce significant temperature anisotropies in the Cosmic Microwave Background…
We investigate the scalar and vector modes arising from cosmological perturbations within the framework of an inflationary scenario driven by an antisymmetric tensor field, minimally coupled to gravity. After eliminating gauge artifacts,…
Current bounds on the tensor-to-scalar ratio imply that the energy scale of inflation may lie below the grand-unified scale. In this paper, we show that in a broad class of single-field inflation models with sufficiently small energy…
We propose a novel scenario in which scalar perturbations, that seed the large scale structure of the Universe, are generated without relying on a scalar field (the inflaton). In this framework, inflation is driven by a de Sitter space-time…
We construct a toy a model which demonstrates that large field single scalar inflation can produce an arbitrarily small scalar to tensor ratio in the window of e-foldings recoverable from CMB experiments. This is done by generalizing the…
The determination of the inflationary energy scale represents one of the first step towards the understanding of the early Universe physics. The (very mild) non-Gaussian signals that arise from any inflation model carry information about…
In arXiv:0908.4089, we have proposed a model where natural inflation is realized on a steep potential as a consequence of the interaction of the inflaton with gauge fields through an axion-like coupling. In the present work we study the…
We argue that the lack of power exhibited by cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies at large angular scales might be linked to the onset of inflation. We highlight observational features and theoretical hints that support this view,…
We propose a new version of the hybrid inflation scenario that produces a significantly tilted n>1 spectrum of curvature perturbations. This may happen in supersymmetric models where the inflaton field acquires a mass proportional to the…
We extend the reach of the ``cosmological collider'' for massive gauge boson production during inflation from the CMB scales to the interferometer scales. Considering a Chern-Simons coupling between the gauge bosons and the pseudoscalar…
Supersolid inflation is a class of inflationary theories that simultaneously breaks time and space reparameterization invariance during inflation, with distinctive features for the dynamics of cosmological fluctuations. We investigate…
Recently, BICEP2 has reported the large tensor-to-scalar ratio $r=0.2^{+0.07}_{-0.05}$ from the observation of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) B-mode at degree-scales. Since tensor modes induce not only CMB B-mode but also the…