Related papers: The Quantum Phase of Inflation
A quantum field theory warm inflation model is presented that solves the horizon/flatness problems. The model obtains, from the elementary dynamics of particle physics, cosmological scale factor trajectories that begin in a radiation…
Particle production and its effects on the inflaton field are investigated during the preheating phase of chaotic inflation using a model consisting of a massive scalar inflaton field coupled to N massless quantum scalar fields. The effects…
We show how short inflation naturally arises in a non-minimal gravity theory with a scalar field without any potential terms. This field drives inflation solely by its derivatives, which couple to the matter only through the combination…
During inflationary preheating, the energy stored in the inflaton field is rapidly converted into excitations of other entropy fields. This stage is characterized by exponential particle production due to parametric resonance and is…
We consider the quasi-de Sitter geometry of the inflationary universe. We calculate the energy flux of the slowly rolling background scalar field through the quasi-de Sitter apparent horizon and set it equal to the change of the entropy…
Quantum diffusion describes the inflow of vacuum quantum fluctuations as they get amplified by gravitational instability, and stretched to large distances during inflation. In this picture, the dynamics of the universe's expansion becomes…
We investigate the initiation of cosmic inflation, in full numerical relativity, from pre-inflationary scenarios with large tensor and vector fluctuations in the metric. These settings are characterized by having large values in the Weyl…
We investigate the possibility that the Universe may inflate due to moduli fields, corresponding to flat directions of supersymmetry, lifted by supergravity corrections. Using a hybrid-type potential we obtain a two-stage inflationary…
The scale--independence of the primordial curvature perturbation suggests that it comes from the vacuum fluctuation during inflation of a light scalar field. This field may be the inflaton, or a different `curvaton' field. The observation…
If the cosmological inflationary scenario took place in the cosmic landscape in string theory, the inflaton, the scalar mode responsible for inflation, would have meandered in a complicated multi-dimensional potential. We show that this…
If the spatial curvature of the universe is positive, then the curvature term will always dominate at early enough times in a slow-rolling inflationary epoch. This enhances inflationary effects and hence puts limits on the possible number…
We consider a curvaton scenario in which the late-time domination and the generation of the curvature perturbation is achieved by a non-oscillatory (NO) curvaton potential. Instead of considering the conventional curvaton oscillation, we…
Cosmological models with inflation and those with bounce have their own strengths and weaknesses. Here we construct a model in which a phase of bounce is followed by a viable inflationary phase. This incorporates several advantages of both…
Quintessential inflation is studied using a string modulus as the inflaton - quintessence field. The modulus begins its evolution at the steep part of its scalar potential, which is due to non-perturbative effects (e.g. gaugino…
We investigate warm inflation in the framework of $f(Q)$ gravity within a Friedmann-Robertson-Walker spacetime. Unlike cold inflation, where the inflaton evolves in isolation, warm inflation features continuous interaction between the…
According to the inflationary theory of cosmology, most elementary particles in the current universe were created during a period of reheating after inflation. In this work we self-consistently couple the Einstein-inflaton equations to a…
Simple models of single-field inflation in the very early universe can generate the observed amplitude and scale dependence of the primordial density perturbation, but models with multiple fields can provide an equally good fit to current…
We investigate the quantum cosmological tunneling scenario for inflationary models. Within a path-integral approach, we derive the corresponding tunneling probability distribution. A sharp peak in this distribution can be interpreted as the…
During the inflationary phase of the early universe, quantum fluctuations in the vacuum generate particles as they stretch beyond the Hubble length. These fluctuations are thought to result in the density fluctuations and gravitational…
We propose an inflationary scenario, M-flation, in which inflation is driven by three $N\times N$ hermitian matrices $\Phi_i, i=1,2,3$. The inflation potential of our model, which is strongly motivated from string theory, is constructed…