Related papers: Vacua and correlators in hyperbolic de Sitter spac…
The current experimentally measured parameters of the Standard Model (SM) suggest that our Universe lies in a metastable electroweak vacuum, where the Higgs field is prone to vacuum decay to a lower state with catastrophic consequences. Our…
Matter bounces are bouncing scenarios wherein the universe contracts as in a matter dominated phase at early times. Such scenarios are known to lead to a scale invariant spectrum of tensor perturbations just as de Sitter inflation does. In…
Consistency of the unconventional view of de Sitter space as a quantum theory of gravity with a finite number of degrees of freedom requires that Coleman-De Luccia tunneling rates to vacua with negative cosmological constant should be…
If the recent detection of $B-$mode polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background by BICEP2 observations, withstand the test of time after the release of recent PLANCK dust polarisation data, then it would surprisingly put the…
We present a detailed discussion of the inflationary scenario in the context of inhomogeneous cosmologies. After a review of the fundamental features characterizing the inflationary model, as referred to a homogeneous and isotropic…
We argue that a scalar field in de Sitter spacetime should feel explicit thermal effects associated with its curvature. Starting from the Bunch-Davies vacuum and a scalar field with small mass compared to the de Sitter curvature, we use the…
The cosmological particle production in a $k=0$ expanding de Sitter universe with a Hubble parameter $H_0$ is considered for various values of mass or conformal coupling of a free, scalar field. One finds that, for a minimally coupled field…
The vacuum decay in a de Sitter universe is studied within semiclassical approximation for the class of effective inflaton potentials whose curvature at the top is close to a critical value. By comparing the actions of the Hawking - Moss…
We generalize Integration-By-Parts (IBP) and differential equations methods to de Sitter correlators related to inflation. While massive correlators in de Sitter spacetime are usually regarded as highly intricate, we find they have…
We consider massive \lambda\phi^4 theory in de Sitter background. The mass of the scalar field \phi is chosen small enough, such that the amplification of superhorizon momentum modes leads to a significant enhancement of infrared…
We investigate entanglement generation between the sub- and super-Hubble modes of inflaton fluctuations, in the context of particle production from perturbations during inflation. We consider a large-field inflationary scenario where…
We investigate a recent proposal for a distinguished vacuum state of a free scalar quantum field in an arbitrarily curved spacetime, known as the Sorkin-Johnston (SJ) vacuum, by applying it to de Sitter space. We derive the associated…
We present a (unique?) possibility of de Sitter solution in the framework of N=2 supersymmetry (hypersymmetry). We show that a model with a vector and a charged hypermultiplet has a hybrid inflation type potential. It leads to a slow-roll…
We work in the locally de Sitter background of an inflating universe and consider a massless, minimally coupled scalar with a quartic self-interaction. We use dimensional regularization to compute the fully renormalized scalar…
In negatively curved field spaces, inflation can be realised even in steep potentials. Hyperinflation invokes the `centrifugal force' of a field orbiting the hyperbolic plane to sustain inflation. We generalise hyperinflation by showing…
The BICEP2 collaboration has for the first time observed the B-mode polarization associated with inflationary gravitational waves. Their result has some discomfiting implications for the validity of an effective theory approach to…
A remarkable prediction of the Standard Model is that, in the absence of corrections lifting the energy density, the Higgs potential becomes negative at large field values. If the Higgs field samples this part of the potential during…
We consider a holographic description of the inflationary multiverse, according to which the wave function of the universe is interpreted as the generating functional for a lower dimensional Euclidean theory. We analyze a simple model where…
We present a consistent low energy effective field theory framework for parameterizing the effects of novel short distance physics in inflation, and their possible observational signatures in the Cosmic Microwave Background. We consider the…
A formula for the power spectrum of curvature perturbations having any initial conditions in inflation is obtained. Based on the physical conditions before inflation, the possibility exists that the initial state of scalar perturbations is…