Related papers: Toward inflation models compatible with the no-bou…
The previously proposed class of phenomenological inflationary models in which the assumption of inflaton slow-roll is replaced by the more general, constant-roll condition is compared with the most recent cosmological observational data,…
We consider the eternal inflation scenario of the slow-roll/chaotic type with the additional element of an objective collapse of the wave function. The incorporation of this new agent to the traditional inflationary setting might represent…
In this work, we present a method for implementing the $\delta N$ formalism to study the primordial non-Gaussianity produced in multiple three-form field inflation. Using a dual description relating three-form fields to noncanonical scalar…
In addition to generating the appropriate perturbation power spectrum, an inflationary scenario must take into account the need for inflation to end subsequently. In the context of single-field inflation models where inflation ends by…
Inflationary solutions are constructed in a specific five-dimensional model with boundaries motivated by heterotic M-theory. We concentrate on the case where the vacuum energy is provided by potentials on those boundaries. It is pointed out…
Cosmological inflation is the dominating paradigm to account for observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). In this thesis, we study the phenomenology of a class of particularly well motivated models of inflation, known under…
Within the $\alpha$-attractors framework we investigate scalar potentials with the same pole as the one featured in the kinetic term. We show that, in field space, this leads to directions without a plateau. Using this, we present a…
We compute the leading order contribution to the four-point function of the primordial curvature perturbation in a class of single field models where the inflationary Lagrangian is a general function of the inflaton and its first…
We compute corrections to the inflationary potential due to conformally coupled non-relativistic matter. We find that under certain conditions of the matter coupling, inflation may be interrupted abruptly. We display this in the…
We present a generic inference method for inflation models from observational data by the usage of higher-order statistics of the curvature perturbation on uniform density hypersurfaces. This method is based on the calculation of the…
We investigate intermediate inflation in the framework of a Galileon scalar field. To this aim, we first obtain the inflationary observables, including the scalar spectral index, the tensor-to-scalar ratio, the running of the scalar…
The slow-roll approximation is the usual starting point to study the constraints imposed on the inflaton potential parameters by the observational data. We show that, for a potential exhibiting at least two extrema and giving rise to a…
With present and future observations becoming of higher and higher quality, it is timely and necessary to investigate the most significant theoretical uncertainties in the predictions of inflation. We show that our ignorance of the entire…
It is already understood that the increasing observational evidence for an open Universe can be reconciled with inflation if our horizon is contained inside one single huge bubble nucleated during the inflationary phase transition. In this…
We study initial conditions for inflation in scenarios where the inflaton potential has a plateau shape. Such models are those most favored by Planck data and can be obtained in a large number of model classes. As a representative example,…
We consider a class of multi-component hybrid inflation models whose evolution may be analytically solved under the slow-roll approximation. We call it multi-brid inflation (or $n$-brid inflation where $n$ stands for the number of inflaton…
We explore inflation via the effective potential of the minimal Wess-Zumino model, considering both the real and imaginary components of the complex field. Using transport techniques, we calculate the full allowed range of $n_s$, $r$ and…
Assuming a first order phase transition during inflation, a model scenario is described which does not require a tiny coupling constant. Thermal equilibrium is closely maintained as inflation commences. No large scale reheating is…
We investigate a standard minimally-coupled scalar-field inflationary scenario, which is based on a new potential, with suitably generalized plateau features, that leads to extra small tensor-to-scalar ratios. In particular, we consider a…
We investigate the quantum cosmological tunneling scenario for inflationary models. Within a path-integral approach, we derive the corresponding tunneling probability distribution. A sharp peak in this distribution can be interpreted as the…