Related papers: Transplanckian axions !?
We propose a scenario for realizing super-Planckian axion decay constants in Calabi-Yau orientifolds of type IIB string theory, leading to large-field inflation. Our construction is a simple embedding in string theory of the mechanism of…
We initiate the analysis of the inflationary dynamics in Weyl-invariant Einstein-Cartan gravity nonminimally coupled to the Standard Model of particle physics. We take the axion-like particle of gravitational origin to be heavy and show…
We present cosmological perturbation theory based on generalized gravity theories including string theory correction terms and a tachyonic complication. The classical evolution as well as the quantum generation processes in these variety of…
Axion monodromy is a generic phenomenon in string compactifications. We investigate the production of gravitational-wave background from axion monodromy inflation during preheating. By performing lattice simulations using pseudo-spectral…
We present a simple set of power counting rules which allows us to easily estimate calculable instanton effects up to $O(1)$ factors. We apply the resulting Instanton NDA to examine the effects of small instantons on various axion models.…
We explore the possibility that the fundamental theory of nature does not contain any scale. This implies a renormalizable quantum gravity theory where the graviton kinetic term has 4 derivatives, and can be reinterpreted as gravity minus…
The role of space-time torsion in general relativity is reviewed in accordance with some recent results on the subject. It is shown that, according to the connection compatibility condition, the usual Riemannian volume element is not…
Inhomogeneous multidimensional cosmological models with a higher dimensional space-time manifold are investigated under dimensional reduction. In the Einstein conformal frame, small excitations of the scale factors of the internal spaces…
Scattering of fundamental states of type IIB supergravity and superstring theory is discussed at low orders in perturbation theory in the background of a D-instanton. The integration over fermionic zero modes in both the low energy…
We study the pattern of oscillations in the primordial power spectrum in axion monodromy inflation, accounting for drifts in the oscillation period that can be important for comparing to cosmological data. In these models the potential…
The recent BICEP2 measurements of B-modes indicate a large tensor-to-scalar ratio in inflationary cosmology, which points towards trans-Planckian evolution of the inflaton. We propose possible string-theory realizations thereof. Schemes for…
We demonstrate that gravitational waves generated by efficient gauge preheating after axion inflation generically contribute significantly to the effective number of relativistic degrees of freedom $N_\mathrm{eff}$. We show that, with…
The axion or axion-like particle motivated from a natural solution of strong CP problem or string theory is a promising dark matter candidate. We study the new observational effects of ultralight axion-like particles by the space-borne…
We discuss the additional perturbation introduced during inflation by quantum stress tensor fluctuations of a conformally invariant field such as the photon. We consider both a kinematical model, which deals only with the expansion…
We investigate the post-inflationary evolution of a non-minimally coupled inflaton field in scalar-tensor theories, framed within the flexible framework of Einstein-Cartan gravity. By focusing on a class of simplified Higgs-like scenarios,…
We study the quantum dynamics of N=1 supergravity in four dimensions with a compact spatial circle. Supersymmetry ensures that the perturbative contributions to the Casimir energy on the circle cancel. However, instanton contributions…
We study the interplay of general relativity, the equivalence principle, and high-precision experiments involving atomic transitions and g factor measurements. In particular, we derive a generalized Dirac Hamiltonian, which describes both…
We study the possibility that the axion Peccei-Quinn symmetry is spontaneously broken after the beginning of inflation. This scenario interpolates between pre-inflationary and post-inflationary axion cosmology with significant…
We include the single graviton loop contribution to the linearized Einstein equation. Explicit results are obtained for one loop corrections to the propagation of gravitational radiation. Although suppressed by a minuscule loop-counting…
We study a class of early universe cosmological models based on Einstein-Cartan gravity and including a higher derivative term corresponding to a power of the Holst scalar curvature. The resulting effective action is basically given by…