Related papers: Non-Gaussian bubbles in the sky
This thesis is dedicated to studying cosmological inflation, which is a period of accelerated expansion in the very early Universe that is required to explain the observed anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background. Inflation, when…
As the quality of cosmological data continue to improve, it is natural to test the statistics of primordial fluctuations: are they Gaussian or non-Gaussian? I review a model which generates non-Gaussian adiabatic fluctuations from…
We investigate if the observed small and nearly scale-invariant primordial cosmic perturbation, i.e. the perturbation amplitude $P_\zeta\sim10^{-9}$ and the spectral index $n_s \simeq 0.965$, is typical in the landscape of vacua after…
Non-Gaussian statistics in the distribution of large scale structure, and in temperature fluctuations of the cosmic microwave background, can be used to constrain inflationary models. Data on the cosmic microwave background from Planck…
The shift-symmetric coupling of a pseudo-scalar particle driving inflation to gauge fields provides a unique way of probing cosmic inflation. We show for an SU(2) gauge group how a classical isotropic background gauge field develops from…
We propose a model for cosmic inflation which is based on an effective description of strongly interacting, nonsupersymmetric matter within the framework of dynamical Abelian projection and centerization. The underlying gauge symmetry is…
Noncommutative geometry can provide effective description of physics at very short distances taking into account generic effects of quantum gravity. Inflation amplifies tiny quantum fluctuations in the early universe to macroscopic scales…
We study non-Gaussianity of density perturbations generated by an axionic curvaton, focusing on the case that the curvaton sits near the hilltop of the potential during inflation. Such hilltop curvatons can generate a red-tilted density…
The existence of large scale voids in several galaxy surveys suggests the occurence of an inflationary first order phase transition. This process generates primordial bubbles that, before evolving into the present voids, leave at decoupling…
Quasi-conformal models are an appealing scenario that can offer naturally a strongly supercooled phase transition and a period of thermal inflation in the early Universe. A crucial aspect for the viability of these models is how the…
We calculate the bispectrum of primordial curvature perturbations, \zeta, generated during "open inflation." Inflation occurs inside a bubble nucleated via quantum tunneling from the background false vacuum state. Our universe lives inside…
We study a cosmological scenario in which inflation is preceded by a bounce. In this scenario, the primordial singularity, one of the major shortcomings of inflation, is replaced by a non-singular bounce, prior to which the universe…
In the context of the open inflationary universe, we calculate the amplitude of quantum fluctuations which deform the bubble shape. These give rise to scalar field fluctuations in the open Friedman-Robertson-Walker universe which is…
We investigate the quantum cosmological tunneling scenario for inflationary models. Within a path-integral approach, we derive the corresponding tunneling probability distribution. A sharp peak in this distribution can be interpreted as the…
When inflation is driven by a pseudo-scalar field \chi coupled to vectors as \alpha/4 \chi F \tilde F, this coupling may lead to a copious production of gauge quanta, which in turns induces non-Gaussian and non-scale invariant corrections…
Primordial black-hole formation depends exponentially on the far tail of the primordial curvature-perturbation distribution. That sensitivity makes the small-scale collapse problem a sharp probe of primordial non-Gaussianity. We study the…
We analyze primordial non-gaussianities in presence of an ultra-slow phase during the inflationary dynamics, focusing on scenarios relevant for the production of primordial black holes. We compute the three-point correlation function of…
Although cosmological observations suggest that the fluctuations of seed fields are almost Gaussian, the possibility of a small deviation of their fields from Gaussianity is widely discussed. Theoretically, there exist numerous inflationary…
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…
A new and powerful probe of the origin and evolution of structures in the Universe has emerged and been actively developed over the last decade. In the coming decade, non-Gaussianity, i.e., the study of non-Gaussian contributions to the…