Related papers: Transplanckian inflation as gravity echoes
We show how observations of the perturbation spectra produced during inflation may be used to constrain the parameters of general scalar-tensor theories of gravity, which include both an inflaton and dilaton field. An interesting feature of…
Axions play a central role in many realizations of large field models of inflation and in recent alternative mechanisms for generating primordial tensor modes in small field models. If these axions couple to gauge fields, the coupling…
A study of the slow-roll inflation for an exponential potential in the frame of the scalar-tensor theory is performed, where non-minimal kinetic coupling to curvature and non-minimal coupling of the scalar field to the Gauss-Bonnet…
We show, within the single-field inflationary paradigm, that a linear non-minimal interaction $\xi\,M_P\,\phi\,R$ between the inflaton field $\phi$ and the Ricci scalar $R$ can result in successful inflation that concludes with an efficient…
We propose a minimal model framework for physics below the Planck scale with the following features: (i) it is based on no-scale supergravity, as favoured in many string compactifications, (ii) it incorporates Starobinsky-like inflation,…
It has recently been suggested that the Standard Model Higgs boson could act as the inflaton while minimally coupled to gravity - given that the gravity sector is extended with an $\alpha R^2$ term and the underlying theory of gravity is of…
We present the first quantum field theory model of inflation that is renormalizable in the matter sector, with a super-Hubble inflaton mass and sub-Planckian field excursions, which is thus technically natural and consistent with a…
In this paper, we consider a model of tachyon with a non-minimal coupling to gravity and study its cosmological effects. Regarding inflation we will show that for a specific coupling of tachyon to gravity this model satisfies observations…
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…
We present a minimal axion inflation model which can generate a large tensor-to-scalar ratio while remaining sub-Planckian. The modulus of a complex scalar field $\Phi$ with a $\lambda |\Phi|^4$ potential couples directly to the gauge field…
During single clock inflation, hidden fields (i.e. fields coupled to the inflaton only gravitationally) in their adiabatic vacua can ordinarily only affect observables through virtual effects. After renormalizing background quantities…
Inflationary models are usually based on dynamics of one or more scalar fields coupled to gravity. In this work we present a new class of inflationary models, gauge-flation or non-Abelian gauge field inflation, where slow-roll inflation is…
We re-examine large scalar fields within effective field theory, in particular focussing on the issues raised by their use in inflationary models (as suggested by BICEP2 to obtain primordial tensor modes). We argue that when the large-field…
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…
Within the framework of hybrid metric-Palatini gravity, we incorporate non-localities introduced via the inverse of the d'Alembert operators acting on the scalar curvature. We analyse the dynamical structure of the theory and, adopting a…
We investigate the tensor perturbation in the inflation model driven by a massive-scalar field in Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld gravity. For short wave-length modes, the perturbation feature is very similar to that of the usual chaotic…
Evidence for the presence of extra fields during inflation may be found in the anisotropies of the scalar and tensor spectra across a vast range of scales. Indeed, beyond the single-field slow-roll paradigm, a long tensor mode can modulate…
We argue that the non-detection of primordial tensor modes has taught us a great deal about the primordial universe. In single-field slow-roll inflation, the current upper bound on the tensor-to-scalar ratio, $r < 0.07$ $(95 \% ~CL)$,…
Using $\delta N$ formalism, in the context of a generic multi-field inflation driven on a non-flat field space background, we revisit the analytic expressions of the various cosmological observables such as scalar/tensor power spectra,…
We explore the generation of large-scale magnetic fields in the so-called moduli inflation. The hypercharge electromagnetic fields couple to not only a scalar field but also a pseudoscalar one, so that the conformal invariance of the…