Related papers: Generalized Slow Roll for Tensors
Probing correlations among short and long-wavelength cosmological fluctuations is known to be decisive for deepening the current understanding of inflation at the microphysical level. Spectral distortions of the CMB can be caused by…
Slow-roll inflation may simultaneously solve the horizon problem and generate a near scale-free fluctuation spectrum P(k). These two processes are intimately connected via the initiation and duration of the inflationary phase. But a recent…
We present a new and especially powerful signature of cosmic strings and other topological or non-topological defects in the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). We show that even if defects contribute 1% or less in the…
Gravitational lensing by large-scale structure significantly impacts observations of the cosmic microwave background (CMB): it smooths the acoustic peaks in temperature and $E$-mode polarization power spectra, correlating previously…
Recent measurements from the BICEP2 cosmic microwave background polarization experiment indicate the presence of primordial gravitational waves with surprisingly large amplitude. If these results are confirmed, they point to a discrepancy…
We identify examples of single field inflationary trajectories beyond the slow-roll regime which improve the fit to Planck 2018 data compared to baseline $\Lambda$CDM model with power law form of primordial spectrum and at the same time…
We describe models of single-field inflation with small and sharp step features in the potential (and sound speed) of the inflaton field, in the context of the Effective Field Theory of Inflation. This approach allows us to study the…
The scenario of the slow-roll inflation is studied in the frame of the scalar-tensor theory of gravity where the scalar field has a non-minimal coupling to the geometric part. After deriving the main dynamical and perturbation equations,…
We investigate the possibility that a low-temperature, low-frequency anomaly in the black-body spectrum, as it emerges when enlarging the Standard Model's gauge-group factor U(1)$_Y$ to SU(2) (Yang-Mills scale $\sim 10^{-4}$ eV), explains…
BICEP2's detection on the primordial B-mode of CMB polarization suggests that inflation occurred around GUT scale, with the tensor-to-scalar ratio r~0.2. Inspired by this discosvery, we study the topological inflation which was driven by a…
We constrain flat cosmological models with a joint likelihood analysis of a new compilation of data from the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and from the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey (2dFGRS). Fitting the CMB alone yields a known degeneracy…
The Hubble constant inferred from the 6-parameter fit to the CMB power spectrum conflicts with the value obtained from direct measurements via type Ia supernova and Cepheids observations. We write down effective operators involving spin-0,…
There exists some evidence of a suppression in power in the CMB multipoles around $l \sim 20-30$. If taken seriously, this is in tension with the simplest inflationary models driven by a single scalar field with a standard type of slowly…
If the beginning of inflation is defined at the moment when the vacuum energy of the inflaton starts to dominate, the energy density of the other fields at that moment is (by definition) comparable to the inflaton. Although the fraction…
We elucidate the counting of the relevant small parameters in inflationary perturbation theory. Doing this allows for an explicit delineation of the domain of validity of the semi-classical approximation to gravity used in the calculation…
Within an expansion in slow-roll inflation parameters, we derive the complete second-order expressions relating the ratio of tensor to scalar density perturbations and the spectral index of the scalar spectrum. We find that ``corrections''…
Generalized slow roll conditions and parameters are obtained for a general form of scalar-tensor theory (with no external sources), having arbitrary functions describing a nonminimal gravitational coupling F(\phi), a Kahler-like kinetic…
In this brief report, we try to constrain general parameterized forms of scalar and tensor mode power spectra, $P_{s}(k)\equiv A_s(k/k_0)^{n_s-1+\frac{1}{2}\alpha_s\ln(k/k_0)}$ and $P_{t}(k)\equiv…
We confront the warm inflation observational predictions directly with the latest CMB data. We focus on a linear temperature (T) dissipative coefficient combined with the simplest model of inflation, a quartic chaotic potential. Although…
We investigate constraints on power spectra of the primordial curvature and tensor perturbations with priors based on single-field slow-roll inflation models. We stochastically draw the Hubble slow-roll parameters and generate the…