Related papers: Cosmic Strings as the Source of Small-Scale Microw…
We investigate the power spectrum of the distortion of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) due to the decay of the primordial magnetic fields. It is known that there are two-types of the CMB distortions, so-called \mu- and y-types and we find…
A cosmic string network created during an inflationary stage in the early Universe - here defined as i-string network - is expected to enter a transient stretching regime during inflation, in which its characteristic length is stretched to…
When cosmic strings are formed during inflation, they regrow to reach a scaling regime, leaving distinct imprints on the stochastic gravitational wave background (SGWB). Such signatures, associated with specific primordial features, can be…
Observations by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe and the Planck mission suggest a hemispherical power amplitude asymmetry in the cosmic microwave background, with a correlation length on the order of the size of the observable…
The breakdown of statistical homogeneity and isotropy of cosmic perturbations is a generic feature of ultra large scale structure of the cosmos, in particular, of non trivial cosmic topology. The statistical isotropy (SI) of the Cosmic…
If current ideas about unified field theories are correct, macroscopic cosmic defects may well exist. The observation of such an entity would have enormous significance for our understanding of fundamental physics. This paper points out a…
We investigate the effect of the stochastic gravitational wave (GW) background produced by kinks on infinite cosmic strings, whose spectrum was derived in our previous work, on the B-mode power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background…
For suitable cosmological backgrounds, thermal fluctuations of a gas of strings can generate a scale-invariant spectrum of cosmological fluctuations without requiring a phase of inflationary expansion. We highlight the key points of this…
Cosmic strings provide a radically different paradigm for the formation of structure to the prevailing inflationary one. They afford some extra technical complications: for example, the calculation of the power spectrum of matter and…
In the first part of this work, I review the theoretical framework of cosmological perturbation theory necessary to understand the generation and evolution of cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies. Using analytical and numerical…
Pre-big bang cosmology predicts tiny first-order dilaton and metric perturbations at very large scales. Here we discuss the possibility that other -- more copiously generated -- perturbations may act, at second order, as scalar seeds of…
We systematically investigate the effect of short distance physics on the spectrum of temperature anistropies in the Cosmic Microwave Background produced during inflation. We present a general argument-assuming only low energy locality-that…
It is likely that the observed large-angular-scale anisotropies in the microwave background radiation are induced by the cosmological perturbations of quantum-mechanical origin. Such perturbations are now placed in squeezed vacuum quantum…
Cosmic strings are predicted by many field-theory models, and may have been formed at a symmetry-breaking transition early in the history of the universe, such as that associated with grand unification. They could have important…
Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) anisotropies that result from quantum fluctuations during inflation are explored and the impact of their ``cosmic variance'' on the ability to use existing data to probe inflationary models is studied. We…
Neutral hydrogen is ubiquitous, absorbing and emitting 21 cm radiation throughout much of the Universe's history. Active sources of perturbations, such as cosmic strings, would generate simultaneous perturbations in the distribution of…
Brane inflation is a specific realization of the inflationary universe scenario in the early universe within the brane world framework in string theory. The naturalness and robustness of this realistic scenario is explained. Its predictions…
We discuss effects of cosmological moduli fields on the cosmic microwave background (CMB). If a modulus field \phi once dominates the universe, the CMB we observe today is from the decay of \phi and its anisotropy is affected by the…
Most inflationary models predict primordial perturbations to be statistically isotropic and homogeneous. Cosmic microwave background (CMB) observations, however, indicate a possible departure from statistical isotropy in the form of a…
We study the imprints of anisotropic inflation on the CMB temperature fluctuations and polarizations. The statistical anisotropy stems not only from the direction dependence of curvature and tensor perturbations, but also from the cross…