Related papers: Identifying the inflaton with primordial gravitati…
During single clock inflation, hidden fields (i.e. fields coupled to the inflaton only gravitationally) in their adiabatic vacua can ordinarily only affect observables through virtual effects. After renormalizing background quantities…
Inflation is a highly favoured theory for the early Universe. It is compatible with current observations of the cosmic microwave background and large scale structure and is a driver in the quest to detect primordial gravitational waves. It…
I will review briefly how inflation is expected to generate a stochastic background of primordial gravitational waves (GWs). Then, I will discuss how such GWs can be enhanced by a stiff period following inflation, enough to be observable. I…
We perform a detailed analysis on a primordial gravitational-wave background amplified during a Kasner-like pre-inflationary phase allowing for general triaxial anisotropies. It is found that the predicted angular distribution map of…
Several alternative ways to quantize gravitational interactions seem to indicate that gravity at short distances is effectively two-dimensional. If this were true, and the energy scale at which the dimensional transition occurs is of the…
We investigate small-scale signatures of the inflationary particle content. We consider the case of a light spin-2 particle sourcing primordial gravitational waves by employing an effective field theory description. Upon allowing…
In this contribution we discuss the possibility of generating an observable gravitational wave (GW) background by coupling a pseudo-scalar inflaton to some Abelian gauge fields. This analysis is performed by dividing inflationary models…
We demonstrate that cosmological perturbations can undergo amplification by parametric resonance during the preheating period following inflation, even on scales larger than the Hubble radius, without violating causality. A unified…
We argue that primordial gravitational waves have a spectral break and its information is quite useful for exploring the early universe. Indeed, such a spectral break can be a fingerprint of the end of inflation, and the amplitude and the…
In many models of inflation, the period of accelerated expansion ends with preheating, a highly non-thermal phase of evolution during which the inflaton pumps energy into a specific set of momentum modes of field(s) to which it is coupled.…
We extend the reach of the ``cosmological collider'' for massive gauge boson production during inflation from the CMB scales to the interferometer scales. Considering a Chern-Simons coupling between the gauge bosons and the pseudoscalar…
We investigate two classes of inflationary models, which lead to a stiff period after inflation that boosts the signal of primordial gravitational waves (GWs). In both families of models studied, we consider an oscillating scalar…
We study a new class of inflation model parametrized by the Hubble radius, such that $aH\propto \exp(-k\phi^n)$. These potentials are plateau-like, and reduce to the power-law potentials in the simplest case $n=2$. We investigate the range…
We investigate the possibility for a direct detection by future space interferometers of the stochastic gravitational wave (GW) background generated during the inflationary stage in a class of viable $\Lambda$CDM BSI models. At frequencies…
We compute the leading order contribution to the four-point function of the primordial curvature perturbation in a class of single field models where the inflationary Lagrangian is a general function of the inflaton and its first…
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…
Recent theoretical results indicate that the detection of primordial gravity waves from inflation may be a hopeless task. First, foregrounds from lensing put a strict lower limit on the detectability of the B-mode polarization signal in the…
We study the generation and evolution of second-order energy-density perturbations arising from primordial gravitational waves. Such "tensor-induced scalar modes" approximately evolve as standard linear matter perturbations and may leave…
A field kinetic coupling with the Einstein tensor leads to a gravitationally enhanced friction during inflation, by which even steep potentials with theoretically natural model parameters can drive cosmic acceleration. In the presence of…
In the ``natural inflation'' model, the inflaton potential is periodic. We show that Planck scale physics may induce corrections to the inflaton potential, which is also periodic with a greater frequency. Such high frequency corrections…