Related papers: The trouble with asymptotically safe inflation
We investigate models of `intermediate' inflation, where the scale factor $a(t)$ grows as $a(t) = \exp (A t^f)$, $0 < f < 1$, $A$ constant. These solutions arise as exact analytic solutions for a given class of potentials for the inflaton…
The effects of the gravitational back reaction of cosmological perturbations are investigated in a phantom inflation model. The effective energy-momentum tensor of the gravitational back reaction of cosmological perturbations whose…
We consider a model in which a pseudo-scalar field $\sigma$ rolls for some e-folds during inflation, sourcing one helicity of a gauge field. These fields are only gravitationally coupled to the inflaton, and therefore produce scalar and…
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…
Inflationary perturbations in multi-field theories can exhibit a transient tachyonic instability as a consequence of their non-trivial motion in the internal field space. When an effective single-field description is applicable, the…
The production of a stochastic background of gravitational waves is a fundamental prediction of any cosmological inflationary model. The features of such a signal encode unique information about the physics of the Early Universe and beyond,…
The perturbative approach to stochastic inflation is used to determine the spectrum of density fluctuations and gravitational waves due to the coarse grained field. The amplitude of the curvature fluctuation spectrum, the spectral index and…
We consider a universe in which inflation commences because of a positive cosmological constant, the effect of which is progressively screened by the interaction between virtual gravitons that become trapped in the expansion of spacetime.…
In warm inflation, dissipation due to the interactions of the inflaton field to other light degrees of freedom leads naturally to the enhancement of the primordial spectrum during the last 10-20 efolds of inflation. We study this effect in…
We propose a new framework for multi-field inflation in which a nearly constant potential energy is maintained during inflation before decreasing rapidly, in a manner analogous to a classical top spinning upright for a long time before…
Could COBE DMR be detecting the imprint from a spectrum of gravitational waves generated during inflation? The conventional inflationary prediction had been that the cosmic microwave anisotropy is dominated by energy density fluctuations…
We calculate the scalar-induced gravitational wave energy density in the theory of Ghost Inflation, assuming scale invariance and taking into account both the power spectrum- and trispectrum-induced contributions. For the latter we consider…
We consider a generic model of quadratic gravity coupled to a single scalar and investigate the effects of gravitational degrees of freedom on inflationary parameters. We find that quantum corrections arising from the massive spin-2 ghost…
It is shown that multi M5-brane inflation in heterotic M-theory gives rise to a detectable gravitational wave power spectrum with tensor fraction $r$ typically larger than the projected experimental sensitivity, $r_{exp} = 0.01$. A…
Physical scenarios, leading to highly energetic stochastic gravitational waves backgrounds (for frequencies ranging from the $\mu$Hz up to the GHz) are examined. In some cases the typical amplitude of the logarithmic energy spectrum can be…
We perform a detailed analytical and numerical analysis of the multi-field evolution of Fibre Inflation and show that, regardless of the microscopic realisation of the model, the mass-squared of one of the two ultra-light axions becomes…
The generation of gravitational waves during inflation due to the non-linear coupling of scalar and tensor modes is discussed. Two methods describing gravitational wave perturbations are used and compared: a covariant and local approach, as…
Axion fluctuations generated during inflation lead to isocurvature and non-Gaussian temperature fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background radiation. Following a previous analysis for the model independent string axion we consider the…
In the early Universe matter can be described as a conformal invariant ultra-relativistic perfect fluid, which does not contribute, on classical level, to the evolution of the isotropic and homogeneous metric. If we suppose that there is…
We study the tensor perturbations in a class of non-local, purely gravitational models which naturally end inflation in a distinctive phase of oscillations with slight and short violations of the weak energy condition. We find the usual…