Related papers: The Effective Field Theory of Inflation Models wit…
We study the effective field theory of inflation, i.e. the most general theory describing the fluctuations around a quasi de Sitter background, in the case of single field models. The scalar mode can be eaten by the metric by going to…
We compare the effects of local features (LF) and branch features (BF) of the inflaton potential on the spectrum of primordial perturbations. We show that LF affect the spectrum in a narrow range of scales while BF produce a step between…
We discuss and clarify the validity of effective single field theories of inflation obtained by integrating out heavy degrees of freedom in the regime where adiabatic perturbations propagate with a suppressed speed of sound. We show by…
The methods of effective field theory are used to study generic theories of inflation with a single inflaton field and to perform a general analysis of the associated non-Gaussianities. We investigate the amplitudes and shapes of the…
We develop an integral form for the bispectrum in general single-field inflation whose domain of validity includes models of inflation where the background evolution is not constrained to be slowly varying everywhere. Our integral form…
In models like axion monodromy, temporal features during inflation which are not associated with its ending can produce scalar, and to a lesser extent, tensor power spectra where deviations from scale-free power law spectra can be as large…
We study loop corrections in the effective field theory of inflation with imaginary speed of sound, which has been shown to provide an effective description of multi-field inflationary models characterized by strongly non-geodesic motion…
We have developed a precise dictionary between the spectrum of primordial density fluctuations and the parameters of the effective field theory (EFT) of inflation that determine the primordial power spectrum (PPS). At lowest order the EFT…
Inflection point inflation generically includes a deviation from slow-roll when the inflaton approaches the inflection point. Such deviations are shown to be generated by transitions between singular trajectories. The effects on the power…
Until recently our knowledge of the primordial curvature perturbation was relatively modest. Ever since COBE delivered its map of data we know the scalar spectrum of primordial perturbations is approximately flat, with the power being only…
We perform the analysis of the trispectrum of curvature perturbations generated by the interactions characterizing a general theory of single-field inflation obtained by effective field theory methods. We find that curvature-generated…
Slow-roll inflation is studied as an effective field theory.We find as consistent form of the inflaton potential V(phi)=N M^4 w(phi/[sqrt{N}M_P]) where phi is the inflaton field, M the inflation energy scale, M_P the Planck mass, and N~50…
We discuss the possible existence of features in both the primordial power spectrum and bispectrum generated during a stage of single field cosmic inflation. We argue that there are two main classes of features: those produced by a sudden…
If the expansion of the early Universe was not close to de Sitter, the statistical imprints of the primordial density perturbation on the cosmic microwave background can be quite different from those derived in slow-roll inflation. In this…
The decrease of both the rolling speed of the inflaton and the sound speed of the curvature perturbations can amplify the curvature perturbations during inflation so as to generate a sizable amount of primordial black holes. In the…
We re-examine large scalar fields within effective field theory, in particular focussing on the issues raised by their use in inflationary models (as suggested by BICEP2 to obtain primordial tensor modes). We argue that when the large-field…
We compute the low energy effective field theory (EFT) expansion for single-field inflationary models that descend from a parent theory containing multiple other scalar fields. By assuming that all other degrees of freedom in the parent…
We take a pragmatic, model independent approach to single field slow-roll inflation by imposing conditions to the slow-roll parameter $\epsilon$ and its derivative $\epsilon^{\prime }.$ To accommodate the recent (large) values of $r$…
This is a version of the author's Ph.D. thesis. The methods of effective field theory are used to study generic theories of inflation with a single inflaton field and to perform a general analysis of the associated non-Gaussianities. We…
We obtain the effective inflaton potential during slow roll inflation by including the one loop quantum corrections to the energy momentum tensor from scalar curvature and tensor perturbations as well as quantum fluctuations from light…