Related papers: No quasi-stable scalaron lump forms after $R^2$ in…
The aim of this paper is to provide a more precise description of the paradigm of corpuscular slow-roll inflation, which was previously introduced by Casadio et al. in [1]. Specifically, we start by expanding the Starobinsky theory on a…
In this work, we investigate the post-inflationary dynamics of a simple single-field model with a renormalizable inflaton potential featuring a near-inflection point at a field value $\phi_0$. Due to the concave shape of the scalar…
We consider cosmological inflation generated by a scalar field slowly rolling off from a de Sitter maximum of its potential. The models belong to the class of hilltop models and represent the most general model of this kind in which the…
We investigate gravitational reheating in the Starobinsky model in the Jordan frame, where inflation is driven by an $R^2$ modification of gravity with no explicit inflaton field. In this description, reheating proceeds exclusively through…
Cosmological $\alpha$-attractors are observationally favored due to the asymptotic flatness of the potential. Since its flatness induces the negative pressure even after inflation, the coherent oscillation of the inflaton field could…
We study a gravitational model with curvature-squared $R^2$ and curvature-quartic $R^4$ nonlinearities. The effective scalar degree of freedom $\phi$ (scalaron) has a multi-valued potential $U(\phi)$ consisting of a number of branches.…
This thesis is dedicated to studying cosmological inflation, which is a period of accelerated expansion in the very early Universe that is required to explain the observed anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background. Inflation, when…
In scale-invariant models of fundamental physics, mass scales are generated by spontaneous symmetry breaking. In this work, we study inflation in scale-invariant $R^2$ gravity, in which the Planck mass is generated by a scalar field, which…
We consider spatially averaged inhomogeneous universe models and argue that, already in the absence of sources, an effective scalar field arises through foliating and spatially averaging inhomogeneous geometrical curvature invariants of the…
Under certain conditions, the oscillating inflaton condensate filling the Universe after inflation can fragment and form so-called oscillons. These long-lived soliton-like field configurations can dominate the Universe for several $e$-folds…
Non-singular bouncing cosmologies are well--motivated models for the early universe. Recent observational data are consistent with positive spatial curvature and allow for a natural collapsing and bouncing phase in the very early universe.…
Strong coupling in Higgs inflation at high energies hinders a joint description of inflation, reheating and low-energy dynamics. The situation may be improved with a proper UV completion of the model. A well-defined self-consistent way is…
We investigate the cosmological inflation in a class of supergravity models that are generalizations of non-supersymmetric $R^2$ models. Although such models have been extensively studied recently, especially after the launch of the PLANCK…
In simple inflationary cosmological scenarios the near-exponential growth can be followed by a long period in which the Universe is dominated by the oscillating inflaton condensate. The condensate is initially almost homogeneous, but…
We propose a 3 + 1 dimensional model of gravity which results in inflation at early times, followed by radiation- and matter-dominated epochs and a subsequent acceleration at late times. Both the inflation and late time acceleration are…
The physics of the inflationary universe requires the study of the out of equilibrium evolution of quantum fields in curved spacetime. We present the evolution for both the geometry and the matter (described by the quantum inflaton field)…
We study the evolution of cosmological fluctuations during and after inflation driven by a scalar field coupled to a perfect fluid through afriction term. During the slow-roll regime for the scalar field, the perfect fluid is also frozen…
We study an inflation model with a flat scalar potential supported by observations and find that slow-roll inflation can emerge after a quasi-cyclic phase of the Universe, where it undergoes repeated expansions and contractions for a finite…
Homogeneous oscillations of the inflaton after inflation can be unstable to small spatial perturbations even without coupling to other fields. We show that for inflaton potentials $\propto |\phi|^{2n}$ near $|\phi|=0$ and flatter beyond…
We suggest a new type of hill-top inflation originating from the initial conditions in the form of the microcanonical density matrix for the cosmological model with a large number of quantum fields conformally coupled to gravity. Initial…