Related papers: Inflation, Cosmic Perturbations and Non-Gaussianit…
Recently multi-field inflation models that can produce large scalar fluctuations on small scales have drawn a lot of attention, primarily because they could lead to primordial black hole production and generation of large second-order…
We study the inflationary dynamics in Brane World gravity and look for observational signatures of any deviation from the standard General Relativity based results of Cosmological Perturbation Theory. We first review the standard paradigm…
After 25 years of its existence, inflationary theory gradually becomes the standard cosmological paradigm. However, we still do not know which of the many versions of inflationary cosmology will be favored by the future observational data.…
We study a nonsingular bounce inflation model, which can drive the early universe from a contracting phase, bounce into an ordinary inflationary phase, followed by the reheating process. Besides the bounce that avoided the Big-Bang…
We consider k-inflation models where the action is a non-linear function of both the inflaton and the inflaton kinetic term. We focus on a scalar-tensor extension of k-inflation coupled to matter for which we derive a modified…
I present a briefly summary of the current status of inflationary models versus topological defects scenarios, as the mechanisms which could have induced the initial density perturbations, which left an imprint on the cosmic microwave…
Correlated adiabatic and isocurvature perturbation modes are produced during inflation through an oscillation mechanism when extra scalar degrees of freedom other than the inflaton field are present. We show that this correlation…
We briefly discuss constraints on supersymmetric hybrid inflation models and examine the consistency of brane inflation models. We then address the implications for inflationary scenarios resulting from the strong constraints on the cosmic…
Chromo-Natural Inflation is the first worked example of a model of inflation in which slow-roll inflation is achieved by "magnetic drift" as opposed to Hubble friction. In this work, we give an account of the perturbations at linear order…
In a series of five lectures I review inflationary cosmology. I begin with a description of the initial conditions problems of the Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW) cosmology and then explain how inflation, an early period of accelerated…
The "new standard cosmology", based on the theory of inflation, has very impressive observational support. I review some outstanding problems of the new cosmology and the global view of the universe -- the multiverse -- that it suggests. I…
We compute the spectrum of scalar and tensor metric perturbations generated, as amplified vacuum fluctuations, during an epoch of dilaton-driven inflation of the type occurring naturally in string cosmology. In the tensor case the…
These lectures cover the basics of inflationary models for the early universe, concentrating particularly on the generation of density fluctuations from scalar-field dynamics. The subsequent gravitational dynamics of these fluctuations in…
Inflation is an early period of accelerated cosmic expansion, thought to be sourced by high energy physics. A key task today is to use the influx of increasingly precise observational data to constrain the plethora of inflationary models…
We review the formalism and applications of non-linear perturbation theory (PT) to understanding the large-scale structure of the Universe. We first discuss the dynamics of gravitational instability, from the linear to the non-linear…
We generalize a recently proposed mechanism for the origin of primordial metric perturbations in inflationary models. Quantum fluctuations of light scalar fields during inflation give rise to super-horizon fluctuations of masses and…
This note derives the analogue of the Mukhanov-Sasaki variables both for scalar and tensor perturbations in the 1+3 covariant formalism. The possibility of generalizing them to non-flat Friedmann-Lemaitre universes is discussed.
The quantum theory of cosmological perturbations in single field inflation is formulated in terms of a path integral. Starting from a canonical formulation, we show how the free propagators can be obtained from the well known…
We review cosmological inflation and its realization in quantum field theory and in string theory. This material is a portion of a book, also entitled "Inflation and String Theory", to be published by Cambridge University Press.
We consider higher-dimensional uniform inflation, in which the extra dimensions expand at the same rate as three-dimensional non-compact space during inflation. We compute the cosmological perturbation in $D+4$ dimensions and derive the…