Related papers: BICEP2, non Bunch-Davies and Entanglement
We show how the choice of an inflationary state that entangles scalar and tensor fluctuations affects the angular two-point correlation functions of the $T$, $E$, and $B$ modes of the cosmic microwave background. The propagators for a state…
We investigate the prior dependence on the inferred spectrum of primordial tensor perturbations, in light of recent results from BICEP2 and taking into account a possible dust contribution to polarized anisotropies. We highlight an…
The tensor fraction $r\simeq 0.16$ found by BICEP2 corresponds to a Hubble parameter $H\simeq 1.0\times 10^{14}\GeV$ during inflation. This has two implications for the (single-field) slow-roll inflation hypothesis. First, the inflaton…
BICEP2 has observed a primordial gravitational wave corresponding to the tensor-to-scalar ratio of 0.16. It seems to require a super-Planckian inflationary model. In this paper, we propose a double hybrid inflation model, where the inflaton…
We show that a scalar excited state with large occupation numbers during inflation leads to an enhancement of tensor modes and a characteristic pattern of order-one oscillations in the associated stochastic gravitational wave background…
When modelling inflaton fluctuations as a free quantum scalar field, the initial vacuum is conventionally imposed at the infinite past. This is called the Bunch-Davies (BD) vacuum. If however an asymptotically Minkowskian past does not…
The simplest single-field inflation models capture all the relevant contributions to the patterns in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) observed today. A key assumption in these models is that the quantum inflationary fluctuations that…
We discuss a mechanism of particle production during inflation that can result in a blue gravitational wave (GW) spectrum, compatible with the BICEP2 result and with the r < 0.11 limit on the tensor-to-scalar ratio at the Planck pivot…
The claimed detection of the BICEP2 experiment on the primordial B-mode of cosmic microwave background polarization suggests that cosmic inflation possibly takes place at the energy around the grand unified theory scale given a constraint…
We present a nonsingular scenario in which an inflation era goes after a bounce from a contracting scenario in the early universe. The contracting of the universe is supposed to be slow, such that the initial anisotropies will not grow too…
The simplest interpretation of the Bicep2 result is that the scalar primordial power spectrum is slightly suppressed at large scales. These models result in a large tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$. In this work we show that the type of…
NANOGrav and various pulsar timing array experiments recently reported evidence for a common red noise signal across millisecond pulsars. This signal exhibits Hellings-Downs inter-pulsar correlation patterns, providing compelling evidence…
We study the realization of cosmic inflation in bigravity theories. By analyzing the evolution of scalar, vector, and tensor perturbations in de Sitter-like spacetimes, we find strong stability constraints on the class of viable vacua…
Recently BICEP2 found that the vanishing of the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$ is excluded at $7\sigma$ level, and its most likely value is $r=0.2^{+0.07}_{-0.05}$ at $1 \sigma$ level. This immediately causes a tension with the Planck…
An inflationary gravitational wave background consistent with BICEP2 is difficult to reconcile with a simple power-law spectrum of primordial scalar perturbations. Tensor modes contribute to the temperature anisotropies at multipoles with…
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 revisit the status of hybrid inflation in the light of Planck and recent BICEP2 results, taking care of possible transient violations of the slow-roll conditions as the field passes from the large field to the vacuum dominated phase. The…
We present a series of theoretical constraints on the potentially viable inflation models that might yield a blue spectrum for primordial tensor perturbations. By performing a detailed dynamical analysis we show that, while there exists…
It is proposed that the recently announced BICEP2 value of tensor-to scalar ratio $r\sim0.2$ can be explained as containing an extra contribution from the recent acceleration of the universe. In fact this contribution, being robust, recent…
Large field inflation models are favored by the recent BICEP2 that has detected gravitational wave modes generated during inflation. We study general large field inflation models for which the potential contains (constant) quadratic and…