Related papers: BICEP2 implications for single-field slow-roll inf…
We consider "new inflation" inflationary models at small fields, embedded in minimal ${\cal N}=1$ supergravity with a single chiral superfield. Imposing a period of inflation compatible with experiment severely restricts possible models,…
Motivated by the idea that inflation occurs at the GUT symmetry breaking scale, in this paper we construct a new class of large field inflaton potentials where the inflaton starts with a power law potential; after initial period of relative…
We study models of inflation where the inflaton corresponds to a flat direction in field space and its mass term is generated by gravity mediated soft supersymmetry breaking at high scale. Assuming the inflaton to have non negligible…
We study the tensor spectral index $n_t$ and the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$ in the simplest multifield extension to single-field, slow-roll inflation models. We show that multifield models with potentials $V \sim \sum_i \lambda_i…
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…
We show that an inflationary slow-roll potential can be derived as an IR limit of the non-perturbative exact renormalisation group equation for a scalar field within the mean-field approximation. The result follows without having to specify…
The BICEP2 observations, if confirmed, point to a high scale of inflation and large field excursions during the inflationary era. Non-compact string moduli spaces are a suggestive setting for these phenomena. While unlikely to be described…
We propose new versions of the slow-roll approximation for inflationary models with nonminimally coupled scalar fields. We derive more precise expressions for the standard slow-roll parameters as functions of the scalar field. To verify the…
We propose new classes of inflation models based on the modular symmetry, where the modulus field $\tau$ serves as the inflaton. We establish a connection between modular inflation and modular stabilization, wherein the modulus field rolls…
A corpuscular quantum description of inflation shows that there is no fundamental problem with trans-Planckian excursions of the inflaton field up to about 100 Planck masses, with the upper bound coming from the corpuscular quantum effects.…
One class of single-field inflationary models compatible with the recently-conjectured Swampland criteria would be those in which a Hubble slow-roll parameter $\epsilon_\text{H}$ is not the same as $\epsilon_\text{V} \sim (V'/V)^2$.…
We show that initial conditions for small-field inflation can be determined quantum mechanically by introducing a suitable flattened region in the scalar potential. The inflaton is then driven towards the slow-roll attractor solution…
The early dark energy resolution of Hubble tension seems to be suggesting a scale-invariant Harrison-Zeldovich spectrum of primordial scalar perturbation, i.e. $n_s=1$ ($|n_s-1|\sim {\cal O}(0.001)$) for $H_0\sim 73$km/s/Mpc. In this work,…
It was recently proposed that a field theory cannot be consistent with quantum gravity if it allows a mode shorter than the Planck length to exit the Hubble horizon. This is called the Trans-Planckian Censorship Conjecture (TCC). We discuss…
The spectral index of scalar perturbations is an important observable that allows us to learn about inflationary physics. In particular, a detection of a significant deviation from a constant spectral index could enable us to rule out the…
With an energy scale that can be as high as $10^{14}\,{\rm GeV}$, inflation may provide a unique probe of high-energy physics. Both scalar and tensor fluctuations generated during this early accelerated expansion contain crucial information…
The BICEP2 collaboration has recently released data showing that the scalar-to-tensor ratio $r$ is much larger than expected. The immediate consequence, in the context of $f(R)$ gravity, is that the Starobinsky model of inflation is ruled…
We provide some comments about the constraints on the inflationary models inferred from the two Swampland criteria which have been recently proposed. In particular we argue that, in the absence of any knowledge about the origin of the…
We consider slow-roll inflation for a single scalar field with an arbitrary potential and an arbitrary nonminimal coupling to the Gauss-Bonnet term. By introducing a combined hierarchy of Hubble and Gauss-Bonnet flow functions, we…
These lecture notes have been written for a short introductory course on the status of inflation after Planck and BICEP2, given at the Xth Modave School of Mathematical Physics. The first objective is to give an overview of the theory of…