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We propose a new way of studying the Higgs potential at extremely high energies. The Standard Model (SM) Higgs boson, as a light spectator field during inflation in the early Universe, can acquire large field values from its quantum…
Motivated by the result of Planck+BICEP/Keck recently released, we investigate the consistency of the multi-field inflation models in terms of the spectral index $n_s$ and the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$. In this study, we focus on…
Spectator field models such as the curvaton scenario and the modulated reheating are attractive scenarios for the generation of the cosmic curvature perturbation, as the constraints on inflation models are relaxed. In this paper, we discuss…
We consider the non-equilibrium evolution of the inflaton field coupled to both lighter scalars and fermions. The dissipational dynamics of this field is studied and found to be quite different than that believed in inflationary models. In…
The standard cosmological paradigm assumes that the inflaton field becomes dynamically negligible during the post-reheating evolution of the Universe. We demonstrate that this assumption fails for a broad class of inflationary models where…
We argue that double inflation may occur when a spectator field is non-minimally coupled to gravity. As a concrete example, we study a two-field inflationary model where the initial spectator field is non-minimally coupled to gravity while…
In the modulated reheating scenario, the field that drives inflation has a spatially varying decay rate, and the resulting inhomogeneous reheating process generates adiabatic perturbations. We examine the statistical properties of the…
Light spectator fields may not be dynamically relevant for the inflationary phase of the early universe, but they can still induce interesting imprints on cosmological observables. In this paper, we compute the cross-correlations of the…
Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) observations are used to constrain reheating to Standard Model (SM) particles after a period of inflation. As a light spectator field, the SM Higgs boson acquires large field values from its quantum…
In this study, we explore the back reaction of phase transitions in the spectator sector on the inflaton field during slow-roll inflation. Due to the significant excursion of the inflaton field, these phase transitions are likely to occur…
We propose an alternative implementation of the curvaton mechanism for generating the curvature perturbations which does not rely on a late decaying scalar decoupled from inflation dynamics. In our mechanism the supersymmetric Higgs scalars…
We study the phenomenon of gravitational particle production as applied to a scalar spectator field in the context of $\alpha$-attractor inflation. Assuming that the scalar has a minimal coupling to gravity, we calculate the abundance of…
In the framework of axion-gauge fields models, primordial gravitational wave perturbations could be generated during the inflationary epoch from not only the quantum fluctuation of gravitons but also the dynamics of hidden gauge fields…
We study the role of the Standard Model Higgs condensate, formed during cosmological inflation, in the epoch of reheating that follows. We focus on the scenario where the inflaton decays slowly and perturbatively, so that there is a long…
We study a class of spectator field models that addresses the eta problem while providing a natural explanation for the observed slight deviation of the spectrum of curvature perturbations from scale-invariance. In particular, we analyze…
$SU(2)$ gauge fields can generate large gravitational waves during inflation, if they are coupled to an axion which can be either the inflaton or a spectator field. The shape of the produced tensor power spectrum $\mathcal{P}_h$ depends on…
Due to the universality of gravitational interactions, it is generally expected that a stochastic gravitational wave (GW) background could form during the reheating period when the inflaton perturbatively decays with the emission of…
It is well known that, in potentials that are quadratic near the minimum but shallower away, such as small $\alpha$ ($\ll M_P^2$) attractors, the inflaton condensate fragments into localized compact objects known as oscillons during…
We introduce conformal coupling of the Standard Model Higgs field to gravity and discuss the subsequent modification of $R^2$-inflation. The main observation is a lower temperature of reheating which happens mostly through scalaron decays…
We consider the possibility of enhancing the inflationary tensor mode by introducing a spectator scalar field with a small sound speed which induces gravitational waves as a second order effect. We analytically obtain the power spectra of…