Related papers: Towards a Cosmological Dual to Inflation

Previously defined covariant and gauge-invariant perturbation variables, representing, e.g., the fractional spatial energy density gradient on hypersurfaces of constant expansion, are used to simplify the linear perturbation analysis of a…

Currently there is no definitive description for the accelerated expansion of the Universe at both early and late times; we know these two periods as the epochs of inflation and dark energy. Contained within this Thesis are two studies of…

The present paradigm in cosmology is the usual Big-Bang Cosmology in which two stages of accelerated expansion are incorporated: the inflationary phase in the very early universe which produces the classical inhomogeneities observed in the…

An approach to construct cosmological inflation models on the basis of a certain dependence of the scalar field evolution on the e-folds number is considered. The reconstruction of the model background parameters according to the kind of…

In bouncing cosmology, the primordial fluctuations are generated in a cosmic contraction phase before the bounce into the current expansion phase. For a nonsingular bounce, curvature and anisotropy grow rapidly during the bouncing phase,…

We propose a new single field inflation model in which the usual slow-roll inflation is joined to a new period of slow-climb and slow-roll inflation through a short intermediate non-inflationary phase. We then show that primordial curvature…

We consider the ekpyrotic paradigm in the context of loop quantum cosmology. In loop quantum cosmology the classical big-bang singularity is resolved due to quantum gravity effects, and so the contracting ekpyrotic branch of the universe…

In inflation cosmologies, cosmic structure develops through the gravitational instability of the inevitable quantum noise in primordial scalar fields. I show how the acceleration of the universe defines the shape of the primordial spectrum…

In this paper we consider a unique model of inflation where the universe undergoes rapid asymmetric oscillations, each cycle lasting millions of Planck time. Over many-many cycles the space-time expands to mimic the standard inflationary…

A very simple non-singular inflationary model is presented where the unique matter content is a radiation fluid. The model slowly contracts from a very large, almost empty and flat spacetime and realizes a bounce. It is then launched to a…

We propose a scenario of the beginning of inflation in which the non-vacuum value of the scalar field that drives inflation develops dynamically due to the non-minimal coupling to gravity. In this scenario, inflation emerges as an…

The current epoch of accelerated cosmic expansion is postulated to be driven by dark energy, which in the standard model takes the form of a cosmological constant with equation of state parameter $w=-1$. We propose an innovative perspective…

Inflation is an early period of accelerated cosmic expansion, thought to be sourced by high energy physics. A key task today is to use the influx of increasingly precise observational data to constrain the plethora of inflationary models…

We derive general analytic formulae for the power spectrum and spectral index of the curvature perturbation produced during inflation driven by a multi-component inflaton field, up to the second order in the slow-roll approximation. We do…

We study the slow-roll inflation models, where the inflaton slow-rolls along a trajectory whose orthogonal directions are lifted by potentials with masses of order the Hubble parameter. In these models large non-Gaussianities can be…

Dynamics of the inflaton scalar field oscillating around a minimum of the singular potentials in the expanding Universe is investigated. Asymptotic formulas are obtained describing the cosmological expansion at the late times. The problem…

The conventional background solution for the evolution of a single canonical inflaton field performs admirably in extreme scenarios such as the slow-roll phase (where the slow-roll parameter is much less than one) and the deep reheating era…

We analyse the dynamics of spinodal decomposition in inflationary cosmology using the closed time path formalism of out of equilibrium quantum field theory combined with the non-perturbative Hartree approximation. In addition to a general…

We study the quantum circuit complexity of cosmological perturbations in different models of the early universe. A natural measure for the complexity of cosmological perturbations is based on the symplectic group, allowing us to identify…

We construct gravitational modifications that go beyond Horndeski, namely theories with extended nonminimal derivative couplings, in which the coefficient functions depend not only on the scalar field but also on its kinetic energy. Such…