Related papers: Fine tunings for inflation with simple potentials
We investigate the quantum cosmological tunneling scenario for inflationary models. Within a path-integral approach, we derive the corresponding tunneling probability distribution. A sharp peak in this distribution can be interpreted as the…
Simple models of single-field inflation in the very early universe can generate the observed amplitude and scale dependence of the primordial density perturbation, but models with multiple fields can provide an equally good fit to current…
We consider slow-roll inflation for a single scalar field with an arbitrary potential and an arbitrary nonminimal coupling to the Gauss-Bonnet term. By introducing a combined hierarchy of Hubble and Gauss-Bonnet flow functions, we…
We develop general criteria to construct unified frameworks for inflation and quintessence which employ a unique scalar field to drive both. By using such a minimal theoretical framework we avoid having to fine-tune couplings and…
Stochastic effects in generic scenarios of inflation with multiple fields are investigated. First passage time techniques are employed to calculate the statistical moments of the number of inflationary $e$-folds, which give rise to all…
We use a compilation of cosmic microwave anisotropy data (including the recent VSA, CBI and Archeops results), supplemented with an additional constraint on the expansion rate, to directly constrain the parameters of slow-roll inflation…
The slow roll approximation is studied for cosmological models in Hyperextended Scalar-Tensor Theories of Gravity. A procedure to obtain slow roll solutions in non-minimally coupled gravity is outlined and some examples are provided. An…
We consider non-canonical generalizations of two classes of simple single-field inflation models. First, we study the non-canonical version of "ultra-slow roll" inflation, which is a class of inflation models for which quantum modes do not…
We study the problem of initial conditions for slow-roll inflation along a plateau-like scalar potential within the framework of fluctuation-dissipation dynamics. We consider, in particular, that inflation was preceded by a…
We consider inflation in a universe with a positive cosmological constant and a nonminimally coupled scalar field, in which the field couples both quadratically and quartically to the Ricci scalar. When considered in the Einstein frame and…
In this work we shall study $k$-inflation theories with non-minimal coupling of the scalar field to gravity, in the presence of only a higher order kinetic term of the form $\sim \mathrm{const}\times X^{\mu}$, with…
The linear and quadratic perturbations for a scalar-tensor model with non-minimal coupling to curvature, coupling to the Gauss-Bonnet invariant and non-minimal kinetic coupling to the Einstein tensor are developed. The quadratic action for…
We study `hilltop' inflation, in which inflation takes place near a maximum of the potential. Viewed as a model of inflation after the observable Universe leaves the horizon (observable inflation) hilltop inflation is rather generic. If the…
We study a model of quintessential inflation constructed in $R^2$ modified gravity with a non-minimally coupled scalar field, in the Palatini formalism. Our non-minimal inflaton field is characterised by a simple exponential potential. We…
In this paper we explore the relationship between the existence of eternal inflation and the initial conditions leading to inflation. We demonstrate that past and future completion of inflation is related, in that past-incomplete inflation…
We develop in this thesis the principles governing the production of our universe's primordial inhomogeneities during its early phase of inflation. As a guiding thread we ask what physics during inflation can lead to perturbations so large…
We quantify the slow-roll corrections to primordial density perturbations arising from inflation driven by a four-dimensional scalar field with a monomial potential in a five-dimensional non-compact bulk spacetime. Although the difference…
We reconsider an inflationary model that inflaton field is non-minimally coupled to gravity. We study parameter space of the model up to the second ( and in some cases third ) order of the slow-roll parameters. We calculate inflation…
I review the present status of the problem of initial conditions for inflation and describe several ways to solve this problem for many popular inflationary models, including the recent generation of the models with plateau potentials…
We present new single field inflationary scenarios that produce the critical abundance of primordial black holes as dark matter reconstructing the inflaton potential from an input power spectrum. The method is exact in the slow roll…