Related papers: Axion monodromy inflation with multi-natural modul…
At finite temperature, the coupling of an axion to non-Abelian gauge fields causes dissipation due to sphaleron heating. This mechanism has been considered as ideal for realizing warm inflation since it can lead to large thermal friction…
Models of inflation based on axions, which owe their popularity to the robustness against UV corrections, have also a very distinct class of signatures. The relevant interactions of the axion are a non-perturbative oscillating contribution…
We revisit the recently proposed multi-natural inflation and its realization in supergravity in light of the BICEP2 results. Multi-natural inflation is a single-field inflation model where the inflaton potential consists of multiple…
The QCD axion is one of the best motivated dark matter candidates. The misalignment mechanism is well known to produce an abundance of the QCD axion consistent with dark matter for an axion decay constant of order $10^{12}$ GeV. For a…
We study the multifield dynamics of axion models nonminimally coupled to gravity. As usual, we consider a canonical $U(1)$ symmetry-breaking model in which the axion is the phase of a complex scalar field. If the complex scalar field has a…
We study in detail the dynamics of a scalar field in thermal bath with symmetry breaking potential. In particular, we focus on the process of trapping of a scalar field at an enhanced symmetry point through the thermal/non-thermal particle…
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…
We revisit the possibility of producing observable tensor modes through a continuous particle production process during inflation. Particularly, we focus on the multi-field realization of inflation where a spectator pseudo-scalar $\sigma$…
We study derivatively coupled fermions in axion-driven inflation, specifically $m_\phi^2\phi^2$ and monodromy inflation, and calculate particle production during the inflationary epoch and the post-inflationary axion oscillations. During…
We present a general polynomial chaotic inflation model in supergravity, for which the predicted spectral index and tensor-to-scalar ratio can lie within the 1 sigma region allowed by the Planck results. Most importantly, the predicted…
We study inflation in a random multifield potential, using techniques developed by Marsh et al. The potential is a function of a large number of fields, and we choose parameters so that inflation only occurs in regions where the potential…
The hierarchy of fermion masses in the standard model may arise via the breaking of discrete gauge symmetries. The renormalizable interactions of the flavor-symmetry-breaking potential can have accidental global symmetries that are…
We revisit two-field hybrid inflation as an effective field theory for low-scale inflation with sub-Planckian scalar field ranges. We focus on a prototype model by Stewart because it allows for a red spectral tilt, which still fits the…
We compare the standard single scalar field inflationary predictions with those of an inflationary phase driven by a tachyon field. A slow-roll formalism is defined for tachyon inflation, and we derive the spectra of scalar and tensor…
We discuss some cosmological aspects of supersymmetric axion models in which the axion scale is radiatively generated in terms of the weak scale and the Planck scale. They include thermal inflation, axions produced by the decay of…
We propose a new mechanism to produce axion dark matter from inflationary fluctuations. Quantum fluctuations during inflation are strengthened by a coupling of the axion kinetic term to the inflaton, which we parametrize as an effective…
We discuss a new mechanism to enhance the spectrum of primordial tensor fluctuations in single field inflationary scenarios. The enhancement relies on a transitory non-attractor inflationary phase, which amplifies the would-be decaying…
In the modulated reheating scenario, the field that drives inflation has a spatially varying decay rate, and the resulting inhomogeneous reheating process generates adiabatic perturbations. We examine the statistical properties of the…
In construction of an inflationary model, one usually assumes that the matter sector of the gravitational action is minimally coupled to the background. It means that the matter (inflaton) part of the action is coupled with the same metric…
We consider preheating in models in which the potential for the inflaton is given by a fractional power, as is the case in axion monodromy inflation. We assume a standard coupling between the inflaton field and a scalar matter field. We…