Related papers: A Consistency Relation for Single-Field Inflation …
We investigate the stochastic dynamics of the long wavelength modes of a generic light scalar field that during inflation is coupled to another scalar field. The coupling plays an important role for the fluctuation of the field amplitude…
We discuss metric perturbations produced during a period of inflation in the early universe where two scalar fields evolve. The final scalar perturbation spectrum can be calculated in terms of the perturbed expansion along neighbouring…
We consider $R^p$ inflation with $p \approx 2$, allowing small deviation from $R^2$ inflation. Using the inflaton potential in the Einstein frame, we construct a consistency relation between the scalar spectral index, the tensor-to-scalar…
One of the firm predictions of the single-scalar field inflationary cosmology is the consistency relation between the scalar and tensor perturbations. It has been argued that such a relation, if observationally verified, would offer strong…
In this paper, we present quantitative constraints on the scalar field potential for a general class of inflationary models. (1) We first consider the reconstruction of the inflationary potential for given primordial density fluctuation…
In the standard inflationary scenario based on a minimally coupled scalar field, canonical or non-canonical, the subluminal propagation of speed of scalar perturbations ensures the following consistency relation: $r \leq - 8n_{_T}$, where…
The leading quantum correction to the power spectrum of a gravitationally-coupled light scalar field is calculated, assuming that it is generated during a phase of single-field, slow-roll inflation.
The evolution of high order correlation functions of a test scalar field in arbitrary inflationary backgrounds is computed. Whenever possible, exact results are derived from quantum field theory calculations. Taking advantage of the fact…
We generalize the single-field consistency relations to capture not only the leading term in the squeezed limit---going as 1/q^3, where q is the small wavevector---but also the subleading one, going as 1/q^2. This term, for an (n+1)-point…
We propose a test of single-scalar inflation based on using the well-measured scalar power spectrum to reconstruct the tensor power spectrum, up to a single integration constant. Our test is a sort of integrated version of the single-scalar…
We explore the consequences of a detection of primordial tensor fluctuations for general single-field models of inflation. Using the effective theory of inflation, we propose a generalization of the Lyth bound. Our bound applies to all…
We show how observations of the perturbation spectra produced during inflation may be used to constrain the parameters of general scalar-tensor theories of gravity, which include both an inflaton and dilaton field. An interesting feature of…
We analyse the self-consistency of inflation in the Standard Model, where the Higgs field has a large non-minimal coupling to gravity. We determine the domain of energies in which this model represents a valid effective field theory as a…
The single scalar field inflationary models that lead to scalar and tensor perturbation spectra with amplitudes varying in direct proportion to one another are reconstructed by solving the Stewart-Lyth inverse problem to next-to-leading…
We study the effects of the interaction terms between the inflaton fields on the inflationary dynamics in multi-field models. With power law type potential and interactions, the total number of e-folds may get considerably reduced and can…
We adopt methods from statistical field theory to stochastic inflation. For the example of a free test field in de Sitter and power-law inflation, the power spectrum of long-wavelength fluctuations is computed. We study its dependence on…
According to the equivalence principal, the long wavelength perturbations must not have any dynamical effect on the short scale physics up to ${\cal O} (k_L^2/k_s^2)$. Their effect can be always absorbed to a coordinate transformation…
We consider single-field inflation in light of string-motivated "swampland" conjectures suggesting that effective scalar field theories with a consistent UV completion must have field excursion $\Delta \phi \lesssim M_{\rm Pl}$, in…
We develop a numerical statistical method to study linear cosmological fluctuations in inflationary scenarios with multiple fields, and apply it to an ensemble of six-field inflection point models in string theory. The latter are concrete…
The possibility that the scale-invariant inflationary spectrum may be modified due to the hidden assumptions about the Planck scale physics -- dubbed as trans-Planckian inflation -- has received considerable attention. To mimic the possible…