Related papers: The structure of correlation functions in single f…
A class of non-canonical inflationary models is identified, where the leading-order contribution to the non-Gaussianity of the curvature perturbation is determined by the sound speed of the fluctuations in the inflaton field. Included in…
Most, if not all, scalar-tensor theories are equivalent to General Relativity with a disformally coupled matter sector. In extra-dimensional theories such a coupling can be understood as a result of induction of the metric on a brane that…
Primordial non-Gaussianity is generated by interactions of the inflaton field, either self-interactions or couplings to other sectors. These two physically different mechanisms can lead to nearly indistinguishable bispectra of the…
This is a version of the author's Ph.D. thesis. The methods of effective field theory are used to study generic theories of inflation with a single inflaton field and to perform a general analysis of the associated non-Gaussianities. We…
We consider a self-interacting scalar field in a de Sitter background and deal with the associated infrared divergences in a purely diagrammatic way using the in-in formalism. In the particular case of a large N O(N) invariant scalar field…
In a general single field inflationary model we consider the effects of long wavelength scalar fluctuations on the effective expansion rate and equation of state seen by a class of free falling observers, using a physical gauge invariant…
We show that a perturbed inflationary spacetime, driven by a canonical single scalar field, is invariant under a special class of coordinate transformations together with a field reparametrization of the curvature perturbation in co-moving…
We study the slow-roll inflation models, where the inflaton slow-rolls along a trajectory whose orthogonal directions are lifted by potentials with masses of order the Hubble parameter. In these models large non-Gaussianities can be…
We present a method to analytically compute the quantum corrected two-point correlation function of a scalar field in leading order at each loop in a homogeneous, isotropic and spatially flat spacetime where the expansion rate is time…
Interactions between the inflaton and any additional fields can lead to isolated bursts of particle production during inflation (for example from parametric resonance or a phase transition). Inflationary particle production leaves localized…
The general expression for the second order large scale curvature perturbation in the form of a functional over a background solution is derived. The explicit expressions was obtained for two special forms of the inflationary potential. In…
We derive oscillatory signals in correlation functions in two-field open inflation by means of the in-in formalism; such signatures are caused by resonances between oscillations in the tunnelling field and fluctuations in the inflaton…
We study the evolution of cosmological perturbations on large scales, up to second order, for a perfect fluid with generic equation of state. Taking advantage of super-horizon conservation laws, it is possible to follow the evolution of the…
We study the impact of higher dimension operators in the inflaton Lagrangian on the non-gaussianity of the scalar spectrum. These terms can strongly enhance the effect without spoiling slow-roll, though it is difficult to exceed f_NL ~ 1,…
We perform a thorough computation of the one-loop corrections from both scalar and tensor degrees of freedom to the power spectrum of curvature fluctuations for non-canonical Lagrangians in single-field inflation. We consider models…
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…
Enhancements of primordial curvature fluctuations in single field inflation often involve departures from attractor trajectories in the phase space. We study enhancement/suppression of primordial fluctuations in one of the simplest models…
We analyze the non--Gaussian primordial fluctuations which are inescapably contributed by scalar fields $\Phi$ with vanishing expectation values, $\langle\Phi\rangle=0$, present during inflation in addition to the inflaton field. For…
We investigate a qualitatively new regime of inflationary models with small and rapid oscillations in the potential-resonant non-Gaussianity. In contrast to the standard scenario, where most of the observable information is encoded in the…
We consider light scalar fields during inflation and show how the stochastic spectral expansion method can be used to calculate two-point correlation functions of an arbitrary local function of the field in de Sitter space. In particular,…