Related papers: Circumventing the eta problem in building an infla…
I examine the standard formalism of calculating curvature perturbations in inflation at horizon crossing, and derive a general relation which must be satisfied for the horizon crossing formalism to be valid. This relation is satisfied for…
The "central" region of moduli space of M- and string theories is where the string coupling is about unity and the volume of compact dimensions is about the string volume. Here we argue that in this region the non-perturbative potential…
Warm inflationary dynamics is shown to satisfy both the slow-roll and density perturbation constraints for $m_{\phi} \gg H$ or equivalently $\eta \gg 1$ and for inflaton field amplitudes much below the Planck scale, $<\phi > < m_{pl}$. I…
The evolution of slow--roll inflation in a five--dimensional brane world model with two boundary branes and bulk scalar field is studied. Assuming that the inflationary scale is below the brane tension, we can employ the moduli space…
The angular power spectrum is investigated in the model of supergravity, incorporating the target-space duality and the non-perturbative gaugino condensation in the hidden sector. The inflation and supersymmetry breaking occur at once by…
We argue that strong dynamics at the Planck scale can solve the cosmological moduli problem. We discuss its implications for inflation models, and find that a certain type of multi-field inflation model is required for this mechanism to…
Higher-order alpha'-corrections are a generic feature of type IIB string compactifications. In KKLT-like models of moduli stabilization they provide a mechanism of breaking the no-scale structure of the volume modulus. We present a model of…
The theory of inflation will be investigated as well as supersymmetry breaking in the context of supergravity, incorporating the target-space duality and the nonperturbative gaugino condensation in the hidden sector. We found an…
We present a detailed analysis of an explicit model of warped D-brane inflation, incorporating the effects of moduli stabilization. We consider the potential for D3-brane motion in a warped conifold background that includes fluxes and…
We analyse the cosmological implications of brane-antibrane systems in string-theoretic orbifold and orientifold models. In a class of realistic models, consistency conditions require branes and antibranes to be stuck at different fixed…
We present a general set-up for inflation in string theory where the inflaton field corresponds to Wilson lines in compact space in the presence of magnetic fluxes. T-dualities and limits on the value of the magnetic fluxes relate this…
We study the possibility of extended inflation in the effective theory of gravity from strings compactified to four dimensions and find that it strongly depends on the mechanism of supersymmetry breaking. We consider a general class of…
We examine the consequences of Lorentz violation during slow-roll inflation. We consider a canonical scalar inflaton coupled, through its potential, to the divergence of a fixed-norm timelike vector field, or "aether." The vector is…
String theory abounds with light scalar fields (the dilaton and various moduli) which create a host of observational problems, and notably some serious cosmological difficulties similar to the ones associated with the Polonyi field in the…
It is shown that, when the inflaton field modulates the gauge kinetic function of the gauge fields in supergravity realisations of inflation, the dynamic backreaction leads to a new inflationary attractor solution, in which the inflaton's…
This thesis is dedicated to the study of inflationary scenarios based on string theory. Inflation is a brief period of accelerated expansion in the very early Universe which gives natural explanations for problems of the Standard Big Bang…
We demonstrate that a gas of wrapped branes in the early Universe can help resolve the cosmological Dine-Seiberg/Brustein-Steinhardt overshoot problem in the context of moduli stabilization with steep potentials in string theory. Starting…
In brane inflation, the relative brane position in the bulk of a brane world is the inflaton. For branes moving in a compact manifold, the approximate translational (or shift) symmetry is necessary to suppress the inflaton mass, which then…
Data on the cosmic microwave background (CMB) are discriminating between different models of inflation, disfavoring simple monomial potentials whilst being consistent with models whose predictions resemble those of the Starobinsky $R + R^2$…
We review the main aspects of the warm inflation scenario, focusing on the inflationary dynamics and the predictions related to the primordial spectrum of perturbations, to be compared with the recent cosmological observations. We study in…