Related papers: Do Mixed States save Effective Field Theory from B…
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…
We construct a hybrid-inflation model where the inflaton potential is generated radiatively, as gauge symmetries guarantee it to be accidentally flat at tree level. The model can be regarded as a small-field version of Natural Inflation,…
The BICEP/$\textit{Keck}$ (BK) series of cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization experiments has, over the past decade and a half, produced a series of field-leading constraints on cosmic inflation via measurements of the "B-mode"…
We show that the tension introduced by the detection of large amplitude gravitational wave power by the BICEP2 experiment with temperature anisotropy measurements by the Planck mission is alleviated in models where extra light species…
Entangled inflationary quantum states offer an interesting alternative to the standard Bunch-Davies vacuum. While they can be viewed from the point of view of a theory of effective initial states, it has been unclear exactly how such states…
We study power law inflation in the context of non-minimally coupled to the scalar curvature. We analyze the inflationary solutions under an exact analysis and also in the slow roll approximation. In both solutions, we consider the recent…
We consider hybrid inflation for small couplings of the inflaton to matter such that the critical value of the inflaton field exceeds the Planck mass. It has recently been shown that inflation then continues at subcritical inflaton field…
Conventional wisdom says that a chaotic inflation model with a power-law potential is ruled out by the recent Planck-BICEP/Keck results. We find, however, that the model can be assisted by a non-minimally coupled scalar field and still…
We reevaluate the predictions of inflation regarding primordial gravity waves, which should appear as B-modes in the CMB, in light of the fact that the standard inflationary paradigm is unable to account for the transition from an initially…
We point out three correlated predictions of the axion monodromy inflation model: large amplitude of gravitational waves, suppression of power on horizon scales and on scales relevant for the formation of dwarf galaxies. While these…
We study the mixed scalar-tensor two-point function in icosahedral inflation. Within the regime of validity of the effective field theory, this has to be perturbatively small; in particular, much smaller than the scalar spectrum. However,…
Tribrid inflation is a variant of supersymmetric hybrid inflation in which the inflaton is a matter field (which can be charged under gauge symmetries) and inflation ends by a GUT-scale phase transition of a waterfall field. These features…
A joint analysis of data collected by the Planck and BICEP2+Keck teams has previously given $r = 0.09^{+0.06}_{-0.04}$ for BICEP2 and $r = 0.02^{+0.04}_{-0.02}$ for Keck. Analyzing BICEP2 using its published noise estimate, we had earlier…
We reconstruct scalar field theories to realize inflation compatible with the BICEP2 result as well as the Planck. In particular, we examine the chaotic inflation model, natural (or axion) inflation model, and an inflationary model with a…
For the first time, the possibility of generation of thermal gravitational waves from warm inflation is investigated with cosmic microwave background. Gravitons produced from the quantum fluctuations during warm inflation are found to carry…
Tensor non-Gaussianity represents an important future probe of the physics of inflation. Inspired by recent works, we elaborate further on the possibility of significant primordial tensor non-Gaussianities sourced by extra fields during…
We analyze BICEP2 and Planck data using a model that includes CMB lensing, gravity waves, and polarized dust. Planck dust polarization maps have highlighted the difficulty of estimating the dust polarization in low intensity regions,…
We have explicitly demonstrated that scalar coupled Gauss-Bonnet gravity in four dimension can have non-trivial effects on the early inflationary stage of our universe. In particular, we have shown that the scalar coupled Gauss-Bonnet term…
According to the Borde-Guth-Vilenkin (BGV) theorem an expanding region of spacetime cannot be extended to the past beyond some boundary $\mathcal{B}$. Therefore, the inflationary universe must have had some kind of beginning. However, the…