Related papers: Non-Minimal Two-Loop Inflation
We study chaotic inflation in the context of modified gravitational theories. Our analysis covers models based on (i) a field coupling $\omega(\phi)$ with the kinetic energy $X$ and a nonmimimal coupling $\zeta \phi^{2} R/2$ with a Ricci…
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…
The detection of B-mode power spectrum by the BICEP2 collaboration constrains the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r=0.20^{+0.07}_{-0.05}$ for the lensed-$\Lambda$CDM model. The consistency of this big value with the {\em Planck} results requires a…
Scattering amplitudes at weak coupling are highly constrained by Lorentz invariance, locality and unitarity, and depend on model details only through coupling constants and particle content. In this paper, we develop an understanding of…
Assuming the space dimension is not constant but decreases during the expansion of the Universe, we study chaotic inflation with the potential $m^2 \phi^2/2$. We write down field equations in the slow-roll approximation and define slow…
Large field inflation models are favored by the recent BICEP2 that has detected gravitational wave modes generated during inflation. We study general large field inflation models for which the potential contains (constant) quadratic and…
One of the fundamental objectives of contemporary cosmology is to understand the physics of the inflationary universe, owing to its observably verifiable predictions about the very early universe with an energy scale of $\sim 10^{16}$ GeV.…
We consider a generic model of quadratic gravity coupled to a single scalar and investigate the effects of gravitational degrees of freedom on inflationary parameters. We find that quantum corrections arising from the massive spin-2 ghost…
To first order in the deviation from scale invariance the inflationary potential and its first two derivatives can be expressed in terms of the spectral indices of the scalar and tensor perturbations, $n$ and $n_T$, and their contributions…
A self-consistent pre-inflationary extension of the inflationary scenario with the Starobinsky potential, favored by Planck data, is studied using techniques from loop quantum cosmology (LQC). The results are compared with the quadratic…
We investigate the cosmological inflation for the Einstein-Hilbert action plus the Higgs potential function and the Gauss-Bonnet term coupled with the Higgs scalar field through a dilaton-like coupling. Then, using the…
We study a realization of the inflationary scenario where the Peccei-Quinn (PQ) symmetry is spontaneously broken during inflation, facilitated by its non-minimal coupling to gravity. This results in effectively two-field inflation: the…
A generic non-minimal coupling can push any higher-order terms of the scalar potential sufficiently far out in field space to yield observationally viable plateau inflation. We provide analytic and numerical evidence that this generically…
The BICEP2 observations, if confirmed, point to a high scale of inflation and large field excursions during the inflationary era. Non-compact string moduli spaces are a suggestive setting for these phenomena. While unlikely to be described…
An interacting scalar field with largish coupling to curvature can support a distinctive inflationary universe scenario. Previously this has been discussed for the Standard Model Higgs field, treated classically or in a leading log…
We consider a model of inflation in which the inflaton field is a rolling axion with a potential which is flat enough to support an intermediate phase of USR inflation. Because of the Chern-Simons interaction, one polarization of the gauge…
Inflation is the leading theory to describe elegantly the initial conditions that led to structure formation in our universe. In this paper, we present a novel phenomenological fit to the Planck, WMAP polarisation (WP) and the BICEP2…
We study inflation in scalar-tensor perturbative quantum gravity driven by a one-loop effective potential. We consider effective potentials generated by three models. The first model describes a single scalar field with a non-vanishing…
We extend the Coleman--Weinberg inflationary model where a scalar field $\phi$ is non-minimally coupled to gravity with the addition of the $R^2$ term. We express the theory in terms of two scalar fields and going to the Einstein frame we…
We propose a scalar potential of inflation, motivated by modular invariant supergravity, and compute the angular power spectra of the adiabatic density perturbations that result from this model. The potential consists of three scalar…