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We argue that moduli stabilization generically restricts the evolution following transitions between weakly coupled de Sitter vacua and can induce a strong selection bias towards inflationary cosmologies. The energy density of domain walls…
After decades of successful hot big-bang paradigm, Cosmology still lacks a framework in which the early inflationary phase of the universe smoothly matches the radiation epoch and evolves to the present `quasi' de Sitter spacetime. No less…
Typically cold inflation with positive vacuum energy density dilutes all matter except the quan- tum fluctuations which are stretched outside the Hubble patch during inflation. However the cyclic- inflation scenario, where the universe…
Non-singular bouncing cosmologies are well--motivated models for the early universe. Recent observational data are consistent with positive spatial curvature and allow for a natural collapsing and bouncing phase in the very early universe.…
We report on a novel phenomenon of particle cosmology, which features specific cosmological phase transitions via quantum tunnelings through multiple vacua. The latter is inspired by the axiverse ideas and enables us to probe the associated…
I briefly review the physics of cosmic bubble collisions in false-vacuum eternal inflation. My purpose is to provide an introduction to the subject for readers unfamiliar with it, focussing on recent work related to the prospects for…
The one-loop effective action for non-minimal scalar modified gravity on de Sitter background with a constant scalar field is found. The corresponding induced cosmological constant is evaluated. It is shown that quantum effects in…
Many models of high energy physics possess metastable vacua. It is conceivable that the universe can get trapped in such a false vacuum, irrespective of its origin and prior history, at an earlier stage during its evolution. The ensuing…
Understanding transitions between different vacua of a multiverse allowing eternal inflation is an open problem whose resolution is important to gain insights on the global structure of the spacetime as well as the problem of measure. In…
According to the inflationary scenario of cosmology, all structure in the Universe can be traced back to primordial fluctuations during an accelerated (inflationary) phase of the very early Universe. A conceptual problem arises due to the…
We present the simplest model for classical transitions in flux vacua. A complex field with a spontaneously broken U(1) symmetry is embedded in $M_2\times S_1$. We numerically construct different winding number vacua, the vortices…
The quantum gravitational back-reaction on inflation is based on the self-gravitation of infrared gravitons which are ripped out of the vacuum during inflation. The only quantum part of this process is the creation of gravitons; after they…
Eternal inflation requires upward fluctuations of the energy in a Hubble volume, which appear to violate the energy conditions. In particular, a scalar field in an inflating spacetime should obey the averaged null energy condition, which…
We demonstrate that in the presence of a light scalar spectator field, vacuum transitions taking place during inflation can produce large, potentially detectable non-Gaussian signatures in the primordial curvature perturbation. Such…
The behaviour of quantum metric perturbations produced during inflation is considered at the stage after the second Hubble radius crossing. It is shown that the classical correlation between amplitude and momentum of a perturbation mode,…
We explore the collision of two cylindrical bubbles in classical general relativity with a scalar field stress-energy tensor. Inside each bubble the field rests at a local minimum of the potential with non-negative energy density. Outside…
In this seven-part paper, we show that gravitational waves (classical and quantum) produce the accelerated de Sitter expansion at the start and at the end of the cosmological evolution of the Universe. In these periods, the Universe…
Motivated by the lessons of black hole complementarity, we develop a causal patch description of eternal inflation. We argue that an observer cannot ascribe a semiclassical geometry to regions outside his horizon, because the large-scale…
We investigate the evolution of primordial cosmological perturbations in a vacuum decay model where de Sitter space transitions to radiation domination through quantum-thermal decay processes. Unlike standard inflation, this framework…
In recent literature on eternal inflation, a number of measures have been introduced which attempt to assign probabilities to different pocket universes by counting the number of each type of pocket according to a specific procedure. We…