Related papers: S-dual Inflation: BICEP2 data without unlikeliness
It was recently shown that a large value of the tensor to scalar ratio $r$ implies a constraint on the minimum value of the sound speed $c_s$ of primordial curvature perturbations during inflation that is stronger than current bounds coming…
The CMB-S4 Science Book, Astro2020 Science White Paper on gravitational waves, and PICO report contain an extensive discussion of many ongoing and planned efforts in the search for gravitational waved produced by inflation. Here we give a…
We consider trapped inflation in a higher dimensional field space: particle production at a dense distribution of extra species points leads to a terminal velocity at which inflation can be driven in steep potentials. We compute an…
We investigate the pre-inflationary dynamics of inflation with the Starobinsky potential, favored by recent data from the Planck mission, using techniques developed to study cosmological perturbations on quantum spacetimes in the framework…
An inflationary model in the framework of noncommutative space-time may generate a nontrivial running of the scalar spectral index, but usually induces a large tensor-to-scalar ratio simultaneously. With the latest observational data from…
We locally reconstruct the inflationary potential by using the current constraints on $r$ and $n_{\rm s}$ from BICEP2 data. Assuming small and negligible $\alpha_{\rm s}$, the inflationary potential is approximately linear in…
Motivated by the possibility of inflation in the cosmic landscape, which may be approximated by a complicated potential, we study the density perturbations in multi-field inflation with a random potential. The random potential causes the…
We analyze the Randal Sundrum brane-world inflation scenario in the context of the latest CMB constraints from Planck. We summarize constraints on the most popular classes of models and explore some more realistic inflaton effective…
A new family of inflationary models is introduced and analysed. The behaviour of the parameters characterising the models suggest preferred values, which generate the most interesting testable predictions. Results are further improved if…
Amongst the multitude of inflationary models currently available, models that lead to features in the primordial scalar spectrum are drawing increasing attention, since certain features have been found to provide a better fit to the CMB…
The CMB map provided by the Planck project constrains the value of the ratio of tensor-to-scalar perturbations, namely $r$, to be smaller than $0.11$ (95% CL). This bound rules out the simplest models of inflation. However, recent data from…
The recent Planck results and future releases on the horizon present a key opportunity to address a fundamental question in inflationary cosmology of whether primordial density perturbations have a quantum or thermal origin, i.e. whether…
Many inflationary theories predict a non-Gaussian spectrum of primordial tensor perturbations, sourced from non-standard vacuum fluctuations, modified general relativity or new particles such as gauge fields. Several such models also…
We study the conditions needed to have an early epoch of inflationary expansion with a potential coming from IIB superstring theory with fluxes involving two moduli fields. The phenomenology of this potential is different from the usual…
Recent BICEP/Keck data on the cosmic microwave background, in combination with previous WMAP and Planck data, impose strong new constraints on the tilt in the scalar perturbation spectrum, $n_s$, as well as the tensor-to-scalar ratio, $r$.…
We investigate whether inflation in the early universe can be induced by an extra component of a five-dimensional ${\rm U(1)}$ gauge field in the Randall-Sundrum warped spacetime or not. We show that an effective potential obtained by…
Motivated by the idea that quantum gravity corrections usually suppress the power of the scalar primordial spectrum (E-mode) more than the power of the tensor primordial spectrum (B-mode), in this paper we construct a concrete gravitational…
A generic non-minimal coupling can push any higher-order terms of the scalar potential sufficiently far out in field space to yield observationally viable plateau inflation. We provide analytic and numerical evidence that this generically…
Inflationary models driven by a large number of axion fields are discussed in the context of type IIB compactifications with N=1 supersymmetry. The inflatons arise as the scalar modes of the R-R two-forms evaluated on vanishing two-cycles…
Recent BICEP2 detection of low-multipole B-mode polarization anisotropy in the cosmic microwave background radiation supports the inflationary universe scenario and suggests a large inflaton field range. The latter feature can be achieved…