Related papers: Embedding inflation into the Standard Model - more…
BICEP2 measurement of primordial tensor modes in CMB suggests that cosmological inflation is due to a slowly rolling inflaton taking trans-Planckian values and provides further experimental evidence for the absence of large $M_{\rm P}$…
There is solid theoretical and observational motivation behind the idea of scale-invariance as a fundamental symmetry of Nature. We consider a recently proposed classically scale-invariant inflationary model, quadratic in curvature and…
Last year we argued that if slow-roll inflation followed the decay of a false vacuum in a large landscape, the steepening of the scalar potential between the inflationary plateau and the barrier generically leads to a potentially observable…
Motivated by the recent CMB $B$-mode observation announced by the BICEP2 collaboration, we study simple inflationary models in the Randall-Sundrum brane-world cosmology. Brane-world cosmological effects alter the inflationary predictions of…
If the B-mode signal in the CMB polarization seen by the BICEP2 experiment is confirmed, it has dramatic implications for models of inflation. The result is also in tension with Planck limits on standard inflationary models. It is therefore…
This paper investigates a scale-invariant inflationary model characterized by a scalar field non-minimally coupled to gravity and a curvature term quadratic in the Ricci scalar. The model's dynamic is analyzed using a full numerical…
BICEP2 observations, interpreted most simply, suggest an era of inflation with energy densities of order ($10^{16}\, {\rm GeV})^4$, not far below the Planck density. However, models of TeV gravity with large extra dimensions might allow a…
The recent BICEP2 measurements of B-modes indicate a large tensor-to-scalar ratio in inflationary cosmology, which points towards trans-Planckian evolution of the inflaton. We propose possible string-theory realizations thereof. Schemes for…
The recent BICEP2 B-mode polarization determination of an inflationary tensor-scalar ratio $r=0.2^{+0.07}_{-0.05}$ is in tension with simple scale-free models of inflation due to a lack of a corresponding low multipole excess in the…
The BICEP2 collaboration reports a detection of primordial cosmic microwave background (CMB) B-mode with a tensor-scalar ratio $r=0.20^{+0.07}_{-0.05}$ (68% C.L.). However, this result is in tension with the recent Planck limit, $r<0.11$…
Recent detection of $B$-mode polarization induced from tensor perturbations by the BICEP2 experiment implies so-called large field inflation, where an inflaton field takes super-Planckian expectation value during inflation, at a high energy…
In the framework of classical scale invariance, we consider quadratic gravity in the Palatini formalism and investigate the inflationary predictions of the theory. Our model corresponds to a two-field scalar-tensor theory, that involves the…
Inflationary and hence quantum origin of primordial perturbations is on a firmer ground than ever post the BICEP2 observations of primordial gravitational waves. One crucial ingredient of success of this paradigm rests on explaining the…
The BICEP2 experiment confirms the existence of primordial gravitational wave with the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r=0$ ruled out at $7\sigma$ level. The consistency of this large value of $r$ with the {\em Planck} data requires a large…
Thanks to the Planck Collaboration, we know the value of the scalar spectral index of primordial fluctuations with unprecedented precision. In addition, the joint analysis of the data from Planck, BICEP2, and KEK has further constrained the…
We construct a model of inflation based on a low-energy effective theory of spontaneously broken global scale invariance. This provides a shift symmetry that protects the inflaton potential from quantum corrections. Since the underlying…
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…
In the standard inflationary paradigm the inhomogeneities observed in the CMB arise from quantum fluctuations of an initially homogeneous and isotropic vacuum state. This picture suffers from two well-known weaknesses. First, it assumes…
The recently released BICEP2 data detected the primordial B-mode polarization in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) map which strongly supports for a large tensor-to-scalar ratio, and thus, is found to be in tension with the Planck…
We propose a model of inflation driven by the relaxation of an initially Planckian cosmological constant due to diffusion. The model can generate a (approximately) scale invariant spectrum of (adiabatic) primordial perturbations with the…