Related papers: Embedding inflation into the Standard Model - more…
A sizeable tensor-to-scalar ratio, such as recently claimed by BICEP2, would imply a scale of inflation at the typical scale of supersymmetric grand unification. This could be an accident, or strong support for supersymmetric theories.…
We examine observational constraints on single-field inflation in which the inflaton is a composite field stemming from a four-dimensional strongly interacting field theory. We confront the predictions with the Planck and very recent BICEP2…
In this work, we show that, in the presence of non-minimal coupling to gravity, it is possible to generate sizeable tensor modes in single-field models without transplanckian field values. These transplanckian field values apparently needed…
Motivated by BICEP2 results on the CMB polarization B-mode which imply primordial gravitational waves are produced when the Universe has the expansion rate of about $H \approx 10^{14}$ GeV, and by deviations from a smooth power-law…
We study an effective 4-dimensional scalar-tensor field theory, originated from an underlying brane-bulk warped geometry, to explore the scenario of inflation. It is shown that the inflaton potential naturally emerges from the radion…
Natural inflation is a good fit to all cosmic microwave background (CMB) data and may be the correct description of an early inflationary expansion of the Universe. The large angular scale CMB polarization experiment BICEP2 has announced a…
We determine the frequency of regions of small-field inflation in the Wigner landscape as an approximation to random supergravities/type IIB flux compactifications. We show that small-field inflation occurs exponentially more often than…
We clarify classical inflaton models by considering them as effective field theories `a la Ginzburg-Landau. In this approach, the WMAP statement excluding the pure phi^4 potential implies the presence of an inflaton mass term at the scale m…
We consider a generic model of quadratic gravity coupled to a single scalar and investigate the effects of gravitational degrees of freedom on inflationary parameters. We find that quantum corrections arising from the massive spin-2 ghost…
The measurement of the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$ shows a very powerful constraint to theoretical inflation models through the detection of B-mode. In this paper, we propose a single inflation model with infinity pows series potential…
For a robust interpretation of upcoming observations from PLANCK and LHC experiments it is imperative to understand how the inflationary dynamics of a non-minimally coupled Higgs scalar field with gravity may affect the determination of the…
The large tensor spectrum recently observed by the BICEP2 Collaboration requires a super-Planckian field variation of the inflaton in the single-field inflationary scenario. The required slow-roll parameter \epsilon \approx 0.01 would…
We investigate a very general class of cosmological models with scalar fields non-minimally coupled to gravity. A particular representative in this class is given by the non-minimal Higgs inflation model in which the Standard Model Higgs…
The BICEP2 observation of a large tensor-to-scalar ratio, $r = 0.20^{+0.07}_{-0.05}$, implies that the inflaton $\phi$ in single-field inflation models must satisfy $\phi \sim 10M_{Pl}$ in order to produce sufficient inflation. This is a…
Inflation is part of the Standard Model of the Universe supported by CMB and large scale structure LSS datasets. This review presents new developments of inflation in three main chapters. (I): The effective theory of inflation a la…
We show that if the inflaton has a non-minimal coupling to gravity and the Planck scale is dynamically generated, the results of Coleman-Weinberg inflation are confined in between two attractor solutions: quadratic inflation, which is ruled…
We consider an inflationary model motivated by quantum effects of gravitational and matter fields near the Planck scale. Our Lagrangian is a re-summed version of the effective Lagrangian recently obtained by Demmel, Saueressig and…
In scalaron-Higgs inflation the Standard Model Higgs boson is non-minimally coupled to gravity and the Einstein-Hilbert action is supplemented by the quadratic scalar curvature invariant. For the quartic Higgs self-coupling $\lambda$ fixed…
The measurement of a large tensor-to-scalar ratio by the BICEP2 experiment, r = 0.20 (-0.05)(+0.07), severely restricts the landscape of viable inflationary models and shifts attention once more towards models featuring large inflaton field…
We investigate inflation with a class of concave inflaton potentials of the form $\sim \phi^n$ $(0<n<1)$ in the Randall-Sundrum model with an infinite extra spatial dimension. We show that this class of models is much more in good agreement…