Related papers: Quantum modes in DBI inflation: exact solutions an…
We continue the study of mild transient reductions in the speed of sound of the adiabatic mode during inflation, of their effect on the primordial power spectrum and bispectrum, and of their detectability in the Cosmic Microwave Background…
Canonical models of single-field, slow-roll inflation do not lead to appreciable non-Gaussianity, unless derivative interactions of the inflaton become uncontrollably large. We propose a novel slow-roll scenario where scalar perturbations…
We investigate the accuracy of the slow-roll approximation for calculating perturbation spectra generated during inflation. The Hamilton-Jacobi formalism is used to evolve inflationary models with different histories. Models are identified…
We study multi-field Dirac-Born-Infeld (DBI) inflation models, taking into account the NS-NS and R-R bulk fields present in generic flux compactifications. We compute the second-order action, which governs the behaviour of linear…
We consider a model of DBI inflation where two stacks of mobile branes are moving ultra relativistically in a warped throat. The stack closer to the tip of the throat is annihilated with the background anti-branes while inflation proceeds…
We investigate recent claims that brane inflation solves the overshoot problem through a combination of microphysical restrictions on the phase space of initial conditions and the existence of the Dirac-Born-Infeld (DBI) attractor in…
We investigate the primordial power spectra for general kinetic inflation models that support a period of kinetic dominance in the case of curved universes. We present derivations of the Mukhanov-Sasaki equations with a nonstandard scalar…
We analyze the impact of breaking diffeomorphism invariance in the inflaton sector. In particular, we consider inflaton models which are invariant under the subgroup of transverse diffeomorphisms and address the possibility of implementing…
We compute the non-Gaussianities that arise in single field, slow roll inflationary models arising from arbitrary homogeneous initial states, as well as subleading contributions to the power spectrum. Non Bunch-Davies vacuum initial states…
We study multifield contributions to the scalar power spectrum in an ensemble of six-field inflationary models obtained in string theory. We identify examples in which inflation occurs by chance, near an approximate inflection point, and we…
In addition to generating the appropriate perturbation power spectrum, an inflationary scenario must take into account the need for inflation to end subsequently. In the context of single-field inflation models where inflation ends by…
The power spectra of the scalar and tensor perturbations in the noncommutative k-inflation model are calculated in this paper. In this model, all the modes created when the stringy space-time uncertainty relation is satisfied are generated…
We consider the Einstein equations within the DBI scenario for a spatially flat Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW) spacetime without a cosmological constant. We derive the inflationary scenario by applying the symmetry transformations which…
We develop a variant of the generalized slow roll approach for calculating the curvature power spectrum that is well-suited for order unity deviations in power caused by sharp features in the inflaton potential. As an example, we show that…
We study the amplification of the curvature perturbations due to a small sound speed and find that its origin is different completely from that due to the ultraslow-roll inflation. This is because when the sound speed is very small the…
The inflationary and pre-inflationary evolution of scalar modes of cosmological perturbations in a closed universe is analyzed for a loop quantum cosmology model with an inflationary regime consistent with the constraints on inflation…
We propose a new alternative mechanism to seed a scale invariant spectrum of primordial density perturbations that does not rely on inflation. In our scenario, a perfect fluid dominates the early stages of an expanding, non-inflating…
In a previous paper I showed that a classical scalar potential with $V''/V \sim 1$ can be sufficiently flattened by quantum corrections to give rise to slow-roll inflation. In this paper I give a hybrid inflation implementation of that idea…
We study models of inflation with two scalar fields and non-canonical kinetic terms, focusing on the case in which the curvature and isocurvature perturbations are strongly coupled to each other. In the regime where a heavy mode can be…
We compute the tree-level connected four-point function of the primordial curvature perturbation for a fairly general minimally coupled single field inflationary model, where the inflaton's Lagrangian is a general function of the scalar…