Related papers: Gravitational Effects on Inflaton Decay
In this talk we present a mechanism for leptogenesis which is based on gravity waves produced during inflation. We show that when inflation is driven by a pseudo-scalar field the metric perturbations generated during inflation can become…
We consider dark matter production during the inflaton oscillation epoch. It is conceivable that renormalizable interactions between dark matter and inflaton may be negligible. In this case, the leading role is played by higher dimensional…
Oscillons are spatially localized and relatively stable field fluctuations which can form after inflation under suitable conditions. In order to reheat the universe, the fields which dominate the energy density after inflation have to…
We investigate the model of spontaneous baryogenesis, considering two extensions to the background paradigm. Firstly, we introduce a non-minimal coupling between gravity and the inflaton, increasing the effective mass squared of the latter.…
Cosmological issues of the gravitino production by the decay of a heavy scalar field $X$ are examined, assuming that the damped coherent oscillation of the scalar once dominates the energy of the universe. The coupling of the scalar field…
Whereas preheating after chaotic and hybrid inflation models has been abundantly studied in the literature, preheating in small field inflation models, where the curvature of the inflaton potential is negative during inflation, remains less…
We propose a non-oscillatory no-scale supergravity model of inflation (NO-NO inflation) in which the inflaton does not oscillate at the end of the inflationary era. Instead, the Universe is then dominated by the inflaton kinetic energy…
The primordial spectrum of fluctuations may present a large peak as a result of enhancing features during inflation. This may include, but is not limited to, bumps in the inflaton's potential, phases of ultra-slow-roll or turns in…
In supersymmetric models of warm inflation, the large temperature of the radiation bath produced by the dissipative motion of the inflaton field may induce a significant thermal abundance of potentially dangerous gravitinos. While previous…
The coupling between a pseudo-scalar inflaton and a gauge field leads to an amount of additional density perturbations and gravitational waves (GWs) that is strongly sensitive to the inflaton speed. This naturally results in enhanced GWs at…
This paper concludes our semi-analytic study of preheating in inflationary models comprised of multiple scalar fields coupled nonminimally to gravity. Using the covariant framework of paper I in this series, we extend the rigid-spacetime…
We expand the Einstein-Hilbert action with a positive cosmological constant up to the fourth order in terms of gravity fluctuations, and then use the in-in formalism to calculate the four-point correlation function for gravitational waves,…
During inflation, higher derivative terms in the gravitational action may play a significant role. Building on new stable formulations of four-derivative scalar-tensor theories, we study the impact of these corrections in the case where the…
We study the initial value problem of new inflation models in the scheme of supergravity. We find that an inflaton generally acquires a mass of the order of the Hubble parameter via gravitationally suppressed interactions with particles in…
In the pre-reheating era, following cosmic inflation and preceding radiation domination, the energy density may be dominated by an oscillating massive scalar condensate, such as is the case for quadratic chaotic inflation. We have found in…
In contrast to the inflaton's case, the curvature perturbations due to the curvaton field depend strongly on the evolution of the curvaton before its decay. We study in detail the dynamics of the curvaton evolution during and after…
We study a theory which generalizes the nonminimal coupling of matter to gravity by including derivative couplings. This leads to several interesting new dynamical phenomena in cosmology. In particular, the range of parameters in which…
In the Einstein frame picture of Starobinky's $R^2$ inflation model, cosmic inflation is driven by a slowly rolling inflaton field, called scalaron, and followed by a coherently oscillating scalaron phase. Since the scalaron oscillates…
Spectator field models such as the curvaton scenario and the modulated reheating are attractive scenarios for the generation of the cosmic curvature perturbation, as the constraints on inflation models are relaxed. In this paper, we discuss…
Reheating is essential for transforming the cold, vacuum dominated Universe at the end of inflation into the hot thermal bath required by the Standard Model. In many well motivated inflationary models, however, the inflaton has no direct…