Related papers: Spectator field dynamics in de Sitter and curvaton…
When a subdominant light scalar field ends slow roll during inflation, but well after the Hubble exit of the pivot scales, it may determine the cosmological perturbations. This thesis investigates how such a scalar field, the spectator, may…
We study initial conditions for inflation in scenarios where the inflaton potential has a plateau shape. Such models are those most favored by Planck data and can be obtained in a large number of model classes. As a representative example,…
We study the quantum fluctuations of scalar fields with a variable effective mass during an inflationary phase. We consider the situation where the effective mass depends on a background scalar field, which evolves during inflation from…
Dynamics of long-wave isocurvature perturbations during an inflationary stage in multiple (multi-component) inflationary models is calculated analytically for the case where scalar fields producing this stage interact between themselves…
We study the primordial scalar and tensor perturbations in inflation scenario involving a spectator dilaton field. In our setup, the rolling spectator dilaton causes a tachyonic instability of gauge fields, leading to a copious production…
We study the contribution of spectator massive scalar fields to the inflationary density perturbations through the universal gravitational coupling. We find that such contribution has several remarkable properties: it does not decrease as…
We study the spectrum of cosmological fluctuations in scenarios such as Galilean Genesis in which a spectator scalar field acquires a scale-invariant spectrum of perturbations during an early phase which asymptotes in the far past to…
We study the primordial bispectrum of curvature perturbation in the uniform- density slicing generated by the interaction between the inflaton and isotropic background gauge fields. We derive the action up to cubic order in perturbation and…
We consider the effect of the Gibbons-Hawking radiation on the inflaton in the situation where it is coupled to a large number of spectator fields. We argue that this will lead to two important effects - a thermal contribution to the…
We present a gauge invariant formalism to study the evolution of curvature perturbations during decay of the inflaton or some other field that dominates the energy density. We specialize to the case where the total curvature perturbation…
The spectrum of curvature perturbation generated during inflation is studied in the case the inflation-driving scalar field (inflaton) $\phi$ crosses over its potential extremum. It is shown that the nondecaying mode of perturbation has a…
We study a generality of an inflationary scenario by integrating the Einstein equations numerically in a plane-symmetric spacetime. We consider the inhomogeneous spacetimes due to (i) localized gravitational waves with a positive…
We analyse field fluctuations during an Ultra Slow-Roll phase in the stochastic picture of inflation and the resulting non-Gaussian curvature perturbation, fully including the gravitational backreaction of the field's velocity. By working…
The energy and time scales during the inflationary stage of the universe calls for an out of equilibrium quantum field treatment. Moreover, the high energy densities involved make necessary the use of non-perturbative approaches as large N…
Using numerical solutions of the full Einstein field equations coupled to a scalar inflaton field in 3+1 dimensions, we study the conditions under which a universe that is initially expanding, highly inhomogeneous and dominated by gradient…
We carry out a comprehensive analysis of the simplest curvaton model, which is based on two non-interacting massive fields. Our analysis encompasses cases where the inflaton and curvaton both contribute to observable perturbations, and…
We investigate the initiation of cosmic inflation, in full numerical relativity, from pre-inflationary scenarios with large tensor and vector fluctuations in the metric. These settings are characterized by having large values in the Weyl…
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…
A recent variant of the inflationary paradigm is that the ``primordial'' curvature perturbations come from quantum fluctuations of a scalar field, subdominant and effectively massless during inflation, called the ``curvaton'', instead of…
The physics of the inflationary universe requires the study of the out of equilibrium evolution of quantum fields in curved spacetime. We present the evolution for both the geometry and the matter (described by the quantum inflaton field)…