Related papers: Dante's Inferno
We give a generic argument that string theory provides a natural setting for warm inflationary cosmology. We then explore a specific model with an inflaton modulus field coupled to fields that provide the continuous dissipation needed for…
We describe a scenario for inflation in the framework of non-critical string theory, which does not employ an inflaton field. There is an exponential expansion of the volume of the Universe, induced by enormous entropy production in the…
String theory enjoys an elevated role among quantum gravity theories, since it seems to be the most consistent UV completion of general relativity and the Standard Model. However, it is hard to verify the existence of this underlying theory…
Natural (axionic) inflation can accommodate sizeable primordial tensor modes but suffers from the necessity of trans-Planckian variations of the inflaton field. This problem can be solved via the mechanism of aligned axions…
We prove the existence of a general class of rapidly turning two-field inflationary attractors. By only requiring a large, slowly varying turn rate, we solve the system completely without specifying any metric or potential, and prove the…
In this paper we investigate the asymptotic dynamics of inflationary cosmological models that are based in scalar-tensor theories of gravity. Our main aim is to explore the global structure of the phase space in the framework of…
The simplest two-field completion of natural inflation has a regime in which both fields are active and in which its predictions are within the Planck 1-$\sigma$ confidence contour. We show this for the original model of natural inflation,…
We demonstrate the attractor behavior of inflation driven by a scalar field or a tachyon field in the context of recently proposed four-dimensional effective gravity induced on the world-volume of a three-brane in five-dimensional Einstein…
We study the general embedding of a $ P(X, \varphi) $ inflationary theory into a two-field theory with curved field space metric, which was proposed as a possible way to examine the relation between de Sitter Swampland conjecture and…
We explore the possibility of obtaining inflation in weakly coupled heterotic string theory, where the model dependent axions are responsible for driving inflation. This model can be considered as a certain extrapolation of…
Because the inflationary mechanism is extremely sensitive to UV-physics, the construction of theoretically robust models of inflation provides a unique window on Planck-scale physics. We review efforts to use an axion with a shift symmetry…
Closed string tachyon condensation in spacetime generates potentials on the worldsheet that model two-dimensional inflationary cosmology. These models illustrate and elucidate a variety of aspects of inflation, in particular the generation…
High-scale string inflationary models are in well-known tension with low-energy supersymmetry. A promising solution involves models where the inflaton is the volume of the extra dimensions so that the gravitino mass relaxes from large…
We discuss inflation in models with large extra dimensions, driven by a bulk scalar field. The brane inflaton is then a single effective field, obtained from the bulk scalar field by scaling. The self interaction terms of the effective…
Large field inflation is arguably the simplest and most natural variant of slow-roll inflation. Axion monodromy may be the most promising framework for realising this scenario. As one of its defining features, the long-range polynomial…
String theory generically predicts the coupling between the Affleck-Dine field and axion field through higher-dimensional operators. We thus explore the Affleck-Dine baryogenesis on an axion background. It turns out that the axion…
Supersymmetric hybrid inflation is an exquisite framework to connect inflationary cosmology to particle physics at the scale of grand unification. Ending in a phase transition associated with spontaneous symmetry breaking, it can naturally…
The $SL(2,\mathbb{Z})$ invariant $\alpha$-attractor models have plateau potentials with respect to the inflaton and axion fields. The potential in the axion direction is almost exactly flat during inflation, hence, the axion field remains…
Strongly non-geodesic, or rapidly turning trajectories in multifield inflation have attracted much interest recently from both theoretical and phenomenological perspectives. Most models with large turning rates in the literature are…
We consider single field chaotic inflationary models plus a cosine modulation term, as in axion monodromy models, and augment it by a light scalar field with similar cosine coupling. We show the power spectrum of curvature perturbations of…