Related papers: {\AE}ther compactification and the eta problem in …
We argue that the eta-problem in supergravity inflation cannot be solved without knowledge of the ground state of hidden sectors that are gravitationally coupled to the inflaton. If the hidden sector breaks supersymmetry independently, its…
Theories of low-energy Lorentz violation by a fixed-norm "aether" vector field with two-derivative kinetic terms have a globally bounded Hamiltonian and are perturbatively stable only if the vector is timelike and the kinetic term in the…
We present, for the first time, the quantization process for the Einstein-aether scalar field cosmology. We consider a cosmological theory proposed as a Lorentz violating inflationary model, where the aether and scalar fields interact…
A scalar field with an exponential potential has been proposed as a model of inflation (called power-law inflation). Although it admits an exact solution, the integrability of the system has not been shown.We uncover the hidden symmetries…
Inflationary models whose vacuum energy arises from a D-term are believed not to suffer from the supergravity eta problem of F-term inflation. That is, D-term models have the desirable property that the inflaton mass can naturally remain…
F-term hybrid inflation models in the context of supergravity generically have corrections to the inflaton mass squared of the order of H^{2} (the \eta-problem). In addition they have a problem with large deviations of the spectrum of…
We investigate the longitudinal ghost issue in Abelian vector inflation. It turns out that, within the class of Lorentz-invariant vector field theories with three degrees of freedom and without any extra (scalar) fields, the possibilities…
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…
We examine extended inflation models enhanced by the addition of a coupling between the inflaton field and the space-time curvature. We examine two types of model, where the underlying inflaton potential takes on second-order and…
We investigate the perturbation theory of a fixed-norm, timelike Lorentz-violating vector field. After consistently quantizing the vector field to put constraints on its parameters, we compute the primordial spectra of perturbations…
We derive an extended version of the well-known Lyth Bound on the total variation of the inflaton field, incorporating higher order corrections in slow roll. We connect the field variation $\Delta\phi$ to both the spectral index of scalar…
We propose a scenario where inflation is driven by non-minimally coupled massive vector fields. In an isotropic homogeneous universe these fields behave in presicely the same way as a massive minimally coupled scalar field. Therefore our…
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…
We have investigated if the vector field can give rise to an accelerating phase in the early universe. We consider a timelike vector field with a general quadratic kinetic term in order to preserve an isotropic background spacetime. The…
Hybrid inflation can be realised in low-energy effective string theory, as described using supergravity. We find that the coupling of moduli to F-term hybrid inflation in supergravity leads to a slope and a curvature for the inflaton…
We propose an Einstein-{\ae}ther scalar-tensor cosmological model. In particular in the scalar-tensor Action Integral we introduce the {\ae}ther field with {\ae}ther coefficients to be functions of the scalar field. This cosmological model…
We study the possibility that inflation is driven by a scalar field together with a vector field minimally coupled to gravity. By assuming an effective potential that incorporates both fields into the action, we explore two distinct…
We study the dynamics of topological defects in the context of ``topological inflation" proposed by Vilenkin and Linde independently. Analysing the time evolution of planar domain walls and of global monopoles, we find that the defects…
There is an observational indication of extragalactic magnetic fields. No known astrophysical process can explain the origin of such large scale magnetic fields, which motivates us to look for their origin in primordial inflation. By…
We investigate the possibility of inflation with models of antisymmetric tensor field having minimal and nonminimal couplings to gravity. Although the minimal model does not support inflation, the nonminimal models, through the introduction…