Related papers: On cosmic inflation in vector field theories
It has been known for some time that the usual inference drawn from the observed near-flatness of the large-scale Universe - namely the existence of a cosmological "flatness problem", which is then taken as a partial, but key motivation for…
We discuss the entropy and the size/homogeneity/horizon problems in power-law expanding universes with one scale initial conditions. We set the minimal scale $\Lambda = 10^{25}$ GeV at which a non-inflationary solution is possible and show…
The general Poincar\'e gauge cosmology given by a nine-parameter gravitational Lagrangian with ghost- and tachyon-free conditions is studied from the perspective of field theory. By introducing new variables for replacing two (pseudo-)…
We construct the consistent ghost-free covariant scalar-vector-tensor gravity theories with second order equations of motion with derivative interactions. We impose locality, unitarity, Lorentz invariance and pseudo-Riemannian geometry as…
A wide variety of vacua, and their cosmological realization, may provide an explanation for the apparently anthropic choices of some parameters of particle physics and cosmology. If the probability on various parameters is weighted by…
Fundamental theories of quantum gravity such as supergravity include a four form field strength which contributes to the cosmological constant. The inclusion of such a field into our theory of open inflation (hep-th/9802030) allows an…
We investigate the stability of theories in which Lorentz invariance is spontaneously broken by fixed-norm vector "aether" fields. Models with generic kinetic terms are plagued either by ghosts or by tachyons, and are therefore physically…
We modify the scalar Einstein-aether theory by breaking the Lorentz invariance of a gravitational theory coupled to a Galileon type scalar field. This is done by introducing a Lagrange multiplier term into the action, thus ensuring that the…
The accelerating expansion of the Universe poses a major challenge to our understanding of fundamental physics. One promising avenue is to modify general relativity and obtain a new description of the gravitational force. Because…
Theories with curvature squared terms in the action are known to contain ghost modes in general. However, if we regard curvature squared terms as quantum corrections to the original theory, the emergence of ghosts may be simply due to the…
We consider the scale-invariant inflationary model studied in [1]. The Lagrangian includes all the scale-invariant operators that can be built with combinations of $R$, $R^2$ and one scalar field. The equations of motion show that the…
Inflationary paradigm has several issues, such as the pre-inflationary horizon problem or the eternal inflation. To avoid that the standard Starobinsky inflation has been extended to $R + \alpha R^n$ and $R + \alpha R^n -\delta R^{2-n}$…
We derive a new soft theorem that corresponds to the spontaneous breaking of Lorentz boosts. This is motivated by the dynamics of inflation in the sub-horizon (flat-space) limit, where spacetime becomes flat but Lorentz boosts are still…
Non-abelian discrete gauge symmetries can provide the inflaton with a flat potential even when one takes into account gravitational strength effects. The discreteness of the symmetries also provide special field values where inflation can…
We derive the quantum energy-momentum tensor and the corresponding quantum equation of state for gauge field theory using the effective Lagrangian approach. The energy-momentum tensor has a term proportional to the space-time metric and…
We investigate a class of spatially covariant vector field theories on a flat background, where the Lagrangians are constructed as polynomials of first-order derivatives of the vector field. Because Lorentz and $\mathrm{U}(1)$ invariances…
According to the famous Lyth bound, one can confirm large field inflation by finding tensor modes with sufficiently large tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$. Here we will try to answer two related questions: Is it possible to rule out all large…
We show that the initial field values required to produce inflation in the two fields original hybrid model, and its supergravity F-term extension, do not suffer from any fine-tuning problem, even when the fields are restricted to be…
We first study dark energy models with a minimally-coupled scalar field and exponential potentials, admitting exact solutions for the cosmological equations: actually, it turns out that for this class of potentials the Einstein field…
We consider multiple scalar fields coupled to gravity, with special attention given to two-field theories. First, the conditions necessary for these theories to meet solar system tests are given. Next, we investigate the cosmological…