Related papers: Power-counting and the Validity of the Classical A…
We study models of inflation where the inflaton corresponds to a flat direction in field space and its mass term is generated by gravity mediated soft supersymmetry breaking at high scale. Assuming the inflaton to have non negligible…
The physics of the inflationary universe requires the study of the out of equilibrium evolution of quantum fields in curved spacetime. We present the evolution for both the geometry and the matter (described by the quantum inflaton field)…
We exploit a new numerical technique for evaluating the tree order contributions to the primordial scalar and tensor power spectra for scalar potential models of inflation. Among other things we use the formalism to develop a good analytic…
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…
It is well known that large Hubble-induced supergravity corrections to the inflaton field can ruin the flatness of the potential, thus creating a tension between slow-roll inflation and supergravity. In this paper we show that it is…
We propose a new class of natural inflation models based on a hidden scale invariance. In a very generic Wilsonian effective field theory with an arbitrary number of scalar fields, which exhibits scale invariance via the dilaton, the…
The leading quantum correction to the power spectrum of a gravitationally-coupled light scalar field is calculated, assuming that it is generated during a phase of single-field, slow-roll inflation.
In loop quantum cosmology there may be a super-inflation phase in the very early universe, in which a single scalar field with a negative power-law potential $V= -M^4(\phi/M)^\beta$ plays important roles. Since the effective horizon…
This work is an analytical study of the main differences between classical inflationary effects of a fast-roll regime and imprints of hybrid Loop Quantum Cosmology (LQC) on the primordial power spectrum. Effective LQC solutions of…
In the first part of this paper, we outline the construction of an inflationary cosmology in the framework where inflation is described by a universally evolving scalar field, with the Lagrangian ${\cal L}_\phi=-{1/2}(\partial\phi)^2…
Non-perturbatively generated effective potentials play an extremely useful and often critical role in string and inflationary model building. These potentials are typically computed by methods that assume the system is in equilibrium. For…
We adopt methods from statistical field theory to stochastic inflation. For the example of a free test field in de Sitter and power-law inflation, the power spectrum of long-wavelength fluctuations is computed. We study its dependence on…
We examine the validity of the classical approximation of the waterfall phase transition in hybrid inflation from an effective field theory (EFT) point of view. The EFT is constructed by integrating out the waterfall field fluctuations, up…
Inflation is the currently accepted paradigm for the beginnings of the Universe. To explain the observed almost scale invariant spectrum of density perturbations with only a slight spectral tilt, inflation must have been "slow roll", that…
We compute the power spectrum of curvature perturbations in stochastic inflation. This combines the distribution of first crossing times through the end-of-inflation surface, which has been previously studied, with the distribution of the…
We study corrections to the power spectra of curvature and tensor perturbations and the tensor-to-scalar ratio in single field slow roll inflation due to initial conditions imprinted by a fast-roll stage prior to slow roll. For a wide range…
In this article, we review how strong dynamics can be efficiently employed as a viable alternative to study the mechanism of cosmic inflation. We examine single-field inflation in which the inflaton emerges as a bound state stemming from…
It is known that the Higgs potential in the Standard Model can drive a successful inflation as long as the Higgs field couples non-minimally to gravity. It is then inevitable to take into account the loop corrections of the Standard Model…
We study slow-roll inflation driven by a scalar field non-minimally coupled to gravity within the effective framework of Loop Quantum Cosmology (LQC), including inverse-volume corrections. We consider two physically motivated classes of…
Massive fields during inflation provide an interesting opportunity to test new physics at very high energy scales. Meanwhile in fundamental realizations, the inflationary field space typically has a curved geometry, which may leave…