Related papers: Cosmological perturbations from an inhomogeneous p…
Inflationary cosmology explains the homogeneity and large-scale structure of the universe through a brief epoch of accelerated expansion following the Big Bang. Cyclic cosmologies, in contrast, describe a universe undergoing successive…
We develop a non-linear framework for describing long-wavelength perturbations in multiple-field inflation. The basic variables describing inhomogeneities are defined in a non-perturbative manner, are invariant under changes of time slicing…
We study how the initial inhomogeneities of the spatial curvature affect the onset of inflation in the closed universe. We consider a cosmological model which contains a radiation and a cosmological constant. In order to treat the…
This article discusses density perturbations in inflationary models, offering a pedagogical description of how these perturbations are generated by quantum fluctuations in the early universe. A key feature of inflation is that that rapid…
In inflationary cosmological models driven by an inflaton field the origin of the primordial inhomogeneities which are responsible for large scale structure formation are the quantum fluctuations of the inflaton field. These are usually…
In the context of inflationary models with a pre-inflationary stage, in which the Einstein equations are obeyed, the weak energy condition is satisfied, and spacetime topology is trivial, we argue that homogeneity on super-Hubble scales…
We derive all single-field cosmologies with unit sound speed that generate scale invariant curvature perturbations on a dynamical attractor background. We identify three distinct phases: slow-roll inflation; a slowly contracting adiabatic…
We study a theory which generalizes the nonminimal coupling of matter to gravity by including derivative couplings. This leads to several interesting new dynamical phenomena in cosmology. In particular, the range of parameters in which…
We investigate the recently proposed hybrid inflation models with two stages of inflation. We show that quantum fluctuations at the time corresponding to the phase transition between the two inflationary stages can trigger the formation of…
A non-minimally coupled scalar field can have, in principle, a negative effective Planck mass squared which depends on the scalar field. Surprisingly, an isotropic and homogeneous cosmological universe with a non-minimally coupled scalar…
We study the possibility that large scale cosmological perturbations have been generated during the domination and decay of a massive particle species whose mass depends on the expectation value of a light scalar field. We discuss the…
Inflation is an early period of accelerated cosmic expansion, thought to be sourced by high energy physics. A key task today is to use the influx of increasingly precise observational data to constrain the plethora of inflationary models…
The evolution of the spectrum of cosmological fluctuations from one cycle to the next is studied. It is pointed out that each cycle leads to a reddening of the spectrum. This opens up new ways to generate a scale-invariant spectrum of…
We study the dynamical behaviour of gauge-invariant linear perturbations in spherically symmetric dust cosmologies including a cosmological constant. In contrast to spatially homogeneous FLRW models, the reduced degree of spatial symmetry…
The relation between the long wavelength limit of solutions to the cosmological perturbation equations and the perturbations of solutions to the exactly homogeneous background equations is investigated for scalar perturbations on spatially…
Bouncing models of cosmology, as they arise e.g. in loop quantum cosmology, can be followed by an inflationary phase and generate close-to-scale-invariant fluctuation spectra as observed in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). However,…
We study the observable implications of an incomplete first order phase transition during inflation. In such a phase transition, the nucleated bubbles do not percolate and instead are continuously produced until the onset of reheating. The…
Topological defects are thought to be left behind by the cosmological phase transitions which occur as the universe expands and cools. Similar processes can be studied in the phase transitions which take place in the laboratory:…
String-inspired cosmologies, whereby a non-singular curvature bounce is induced by a general-covariant, $T$-duality-invariant, non-local dilaton potential, are used to study numerically how inhomogeneities evolve and to compare the outcome…
We study the generation of magnetic fields during the stage of particle production resulting from spinodal instabilities during phase transitions out of equilibrium. The main premise is that long-wavelength instabilities that drive the…