Related papers: Parity-violating and anisotropic correlations in p…
The apparent alignment of the cosmic microwave background multipoles on large scales challenges the standard cosmological model. Scalar field inflation is isotropic and cannot account for the observed alignment. We explore the imprints, a…
We extend the curvaton scenario presented by Erickcek et al. (2008, 2009), to explain how the even-odd multipole asymmetry of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) (also called parity asymmetry, (Kim & Naselsky 2010)) and power anisotropies…
We study the statistics of the primordial power spectrum in models where massless gauge vectors are coupled to the inflaton, paying special attention to observational implications of having fundamental or effective horizons embedded in a…
Both the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) and Planck observations reported the hemispherical asymmetry of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature fluctuation. The hemispherical asymmetry might be stemmed from the…
We study a model of inflation where the scalar perturbations are almost gaussian while there is sizable (equilateral) nongaussianity in the tensor sector. In this model, a rolling pseudoscalar gravitationally coupled to the inflaton…
Recently, BICEP2 measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) $B$-mode polarization at degree angular scales has indicated the presence of tensor modes with a high tensor-to-scalar ratio of $r=0.2$ when assuming nearly…
The motion of a pseudo-scalar field $X$ during inflation naturally induces a significant amplification of the gauge fields to which it is coupled. The amplified gauge fields can source characteristic scalar and tensor primordial…
The presence of a light vector field coupled to a scalar field during inflation makes a distinct prediction: the observed correlation functions of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) become statistically anisotropic. We study the…
Several models of inflation employing a triplet of SU(2) vectors with spatially orthogonal vacuum expectation values (VEVs) have been recently proposed. One (tensor) combination $t$ of the vector modes is amplified in some momentum range…
We consider a model of inflation consisting a triplet of $U(1)$ vector fields with the parity violating interaction which is non-minimally coupled to inflaton. The vector field sector enjoys global $O(3)$ symmetry which admits isotropic…
Anisotropy of space-time is measured on the scale of the cosmic horizon, using the angular correlation function $C(\Theta)$ of cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature at large angular separation $\Theta$. Even-parity correlation…
In this paper, inflationary cosmology is reviewed, paying particular attention to its observational signatures associated with large-scale density perturbations generated from quantum fluctuations. In the most general scalar-tensor theories…
This thesis is centered on three main subjects within the theory of inflation and cosmological perturbations: loop corrections to the power spectrum of curvature fluctuations generated during inflation; evolution of cosmological…
We examine the contribution of tensor modes, in addition to the dominant scalar ones, on the temperature anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). To this end, we analyze in detail the temperature two-point angular correlation…
In this paper, we present compelling evidence for the parity asymmetry (a discrete symmetry that is separate from isotropy) in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) map, measured through two-point temperature correlations. This parity…
Cosmic strings formed during inflation are expected to be either diluted over super-Hubble distances, i.e., invisible today, or to have crossed our past light cone very recently. We discuss the latter situation in which a few strings…
The cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature anisotropies from primordial magnetic fields are studied. In addition to the known passive and the compensated mode we discuss an inflationary magnetic mode in the curvature perturbation,…
Heavy particles with masses much bigger than the inflationary Hubble scale $H_*$, can get non-adiabatically pair produced during inflation through their couplings to the inflaton. If such couplings give rise to time-dependent masses for the…
It is well known that processes of first order phase transitions may have occurred in the inflationary era. If one or more occurred well before the end of inflation, the nucleated bubbles are stretched to large scales and the primordial…
We examine cosmological perturbations in a dynamical theory of inflation in which an Abelian gauge field couples directly to the inflaton, breaking conformal invariance. When the coupling between the gauge field and the inflaton takes a…