Related papers: On quantifying and resolving the BICEP2/Planck ten…
Recent BICEP2 results on CMB polarisation B-modes suggest a high value for the inflation scale $V_0^{1/4} \simeq 10^{16}$ GeV, giving experimental evidence for a physical scale in between the EW scale and the Planck mass. We propose that…
It is shown that a tensor-to-scalar ratio close to r = 0.03, which can be observed by Planck, is realized in supersymmetric hybrid inflation models with TeV-scale soft supersymmetry breaking terms. This extends our previous analysis, which…
We investigate whether a recently proposed modulation of the power spectrum of primordial density fluctuations generated through transplankian (maybe stringy) effects during inflation can be observed. We briefly review the mechanism leading…
The Planck full mission cosmic microwave background(CMB) temperature and E-mode polarization maps are analysed to obtain constraints on primordial non-Gaussianity(NG). Using three classes of optimal bispectrum estimators - separable…
We propose a new precision measurement of parity-violating electron scattering on the proton at very low Q^2 and forward angles to challenge predictions of the Standard Model and search for new physics. A unique opportunity exists to carry…
The origin of small deviations from statistical isotropy in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) - the so-called CMB anomalies - remains an open question in modern cosmology. In this work, we test statistical isotropy in Planck Data…
Features in the primordial power spectrum represent the imprinted signal in the density perturbations of the physics and evolution of the early Universe. A measurement of such signals will represents the need to go beyond the minimal…
The BICEP-2 team has reported the detection of primordial cosmic microwave background B-mode polarization, with hints of a suppression of power at large angular scales relative to smaller scales. Provided that the B-mode polarization is due…
Recently the second phase of Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization (BICEP2) claimed a detection of the tensor-to-scalar ratio ($r$) of primordial fluctuation at $5\sigma$ confidence level. If it is true, this large and…
Measuring the primordial matter power spectrum is our primary means of probing unknown physics in the very early universe. We allow the primordial power spectrum to be an arbitrary function, and parametrize it in terms of wavelet band…
The CMB has distinct peaks in both its temperature angular power spectrum (TT) and temperature-polarization cross-power spectrum (TE). From the WMAP data we find the first peak in the temperature spectrum at l = 220.1 +- 0.8 with an…
If the recent detection of $B-$mode polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background by BICEP2 observations, withstand the test of time after the release of recent PLANCK dust polarisation data, then it would surprisingly put the…
We study the classic hybrid inflation model in its original and modified forms and show the shape of the inflationary potentials and analyze the amount of primordial gravitational waves each model predicts. We compare the resulting EE-mode…
The angular power spectra of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature anisotropies reconstructed from Planck data seem to present too much gravitational lensing distortion. This is quantified by the control parameter $A_L$ that…
The discrepancy between the Hubble parameter inferred from local measurements and that from the cosmic microwave background (CMB) has motivated careful scrutiny of the assumptions that enter both analyses. Here we point out that the…
Weak equivalence principle (WEP) is one of the cornerstones of the modern theories of gravity, stating that the trajectory of a freely falling test body is independent of its internal structure and composition. Even though WEP is known to…
In this paper we will list a few important goals that need to be addressed in the next decade, also taking into account the current discordances between the different cosmological probes, such as the disagreement in the value of the Hubble…
One of the foundations of the Standard Model of Cosmology is statistical isotropy, which can be tested, among other probes, through the study of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). However, a hemispherical power asymmetry on large scales…
The polarization of cosmic microwave background (CMB) can be used to constrain cosmological birefringence, the rotation of the linear polarization of CMB photons potentially induced by parity violating physics beyond the standard model.…
We revisit the big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) limits on primordial magnetic fields and/or turbulent motions accounting for the decaying nature of turbulent sources between the time of generation and BBN. This leads to larger estimates for…