Related papers: On Axionic Field Ranges, Loopholes and the Weak Gr…
We study inflation driven by a scalar potential arising from composite-sector dynamics, inspired by generalized composite Higgs models. The introduction of a non-minimal coupling, possessing the same functional form as the potential,…
Generically, the gravitational-wave or tensor-mode contribution to the primordial curvature spectrum of inflation is tiny if the field-range of the inflaton is much smaller than the Planck scale. We show that this pessimistic conclusion is…
Inflection point inflation generically includes a deviation from slow-roll when the inflaton approaches the inflection point. Such deviations are shown to be generated by transitions between singular trajectories. The effects on the power…
The true nature of gravity is a remarkable open problem in Gravitation. Theoretical and observational motivations open the avenue of alternative theories of gravity. One possibility resorts to nonminimal couplings and non-metricity…
This review article aims at presenting the theory of inflation. We first describe the background spacetime behavior during the slow-roll phase and analyze how inflation ends and the Universe reheats. Then, we present the theory of…
We propose the pure natural quintessential inflation model which is motivated by Witten's conjecture, where the axion couples to pure Yang-Mills $SU(N)$ gauge field at large N limit. This modifies the standard cosine potential which is…
It has been known for some time that the usual inference drawn from the observed near-flatness of the large-scale Universe - namely the existence of a cosmological "flatness problem", which is then taken as a partial, but key motivation for…
In the context of canonical quantum gravity, we consider the effects of a non-standard expression for the gravitational wave function on the evolution of inflationary perturbations. Such an expression and its effects may be generated by a…
We provide some comments about the constraints on the inflationary models inferred from the two Swampland criteria which have been recently proposed. In particular we argue that, in the absence of any knowledge about the origin of the…
We consider the effects of inhomogeneous initial conditions in both the scalar field profile and the extrinsic curvature on different inflationary models. In particular, we compare the robustness of small field inflation to that of large…
We obtain cosmological constraints on models of inflation which exhibit rapid roll solutions. Rapid roll attractors exist for potentials with large mass terms and are thus of interest for inflationary model building within string theory. We…
We review locked inflation and we critically address phenomenological and consistency issues thathave appeared in the literature. A natural window of opportunity is found for the original scenario.Moreover, a simple way to enlarge the…
Inflationary models are usually based on dynamics of one or more scalar fields coupled to gravity. In this work we present a new class of inflationary models, gauge-flation or non-Abelian gauge field inflation, where slow-roll inflation is…
The radial direction of the Peccei--Quinn field can drive cosmic inflation, given a non-minimal coupling to gravity. This scenario has been considered to simultaneously explain inflation, the strong $CP$ problem, and dark matter. We argue…
We investigate observational constraints on inflationary parameters in the context of an holographic cosmology with an induced gravity correction. We consider two situations where a universe is firstly filled with a scalar field and…
The density perturbation during inflation seeds the large scale structure. We consider both new inflation-type and chaotic inflation-type potentials in the framework of Einstein-Brans-Dicke gravity. The density perturbation gives strong…
The swampland conjectures seek to distinguish effective field theories which can be consistently embedded in a theory of quantum gravity from those which can not (and are hence referred to as being in the swampland). We consider two such…
It is quite well known for some time that string inspired axionic terms of the form $\nu (\phi)\tilde{R}R$, known also as Chern-Simons terms, do not affect the scalar perturbations and the background evolution for a flat…
We discuss implications of Weak gravity conjecture (WGC) for exotic D-brane instantons. In particular, WGC leads to indirect stringent bounds on non-perturbative superpotentials generated by exotic instantons, with many implications for…
We study the multifield dynamics of axion models nonminimally coupled to gravity. As usual, we consider a canonical $U(1)$ symmetry-breaking model in which the axion is the phase of a complex scalar field. If the complex scalar field has a…