Related papers: Pole Inflation - Shift Symmetry and Universal Corr…
We show that embedding Natural Inflation in a more general scalar-tensor theory, with non-minimal couplings to the Ricci scalar and the kinetic term, alleviates the current tension of Natural Inflation with observational data. The coupling…
Recent Planck measurements show some CMB anomalies on large angular scales, which confirms the early observations by WMAP. We show that an inflationary model, in which before the slow-roll inflation the Universe is in a superinflationary…
In the ``natural inflation'' model, the inflaton potential is periodic. We show that Planck scale physics may induce corrections to the inflaton potential, which is also periodic with a greater frequency. Such high frequency corrections…
This short note emphasises a potential tension between string models of inflation based on systems of branes and antibranes and the spectrum of strings in curved space, in particular the requirement that the leading Regge trajectory extends…
We provide strong evidence for universality of the inflationary field range: given an accurate measurement of $(n_s,r)$, one can infer $\Delta \phi$ in a model-independent way in the sub-Planckian regime for a range of universality classes…
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 present here the general transformation that leaves unchanged the form of the field equations for perfect fluid Friedmann--Robertson--Walker and Bianchi V cosmologies. The symmetries found can be used as algorithms for generating new…
We provide a pedagogical overview of inflation in string theory. Our theme is the sensitivity of inflation to Planck-scale physics, which we argue provides both the primary motivation and the central theoretical challenge for the subject.…
The union of high-energy particle theories and gravitation often gives rise to an evolving strength of gravity. The standard picture of the earliest universe would certainly deserve revision if the Planck mass, which defines the strength of…
We study multifield contributions to the scalar power spectrum in an ensemble of six-field inflationary models obtained in string theory. We identify examples in which inflation occurs by chance, near an approximate inflection point, and we…
We study inflationary models where the kinetic sector of the theory has a non-linearly realised symmetry which is broken by the inflationary potential. We distinguish between kinetic symmetries which non-linearly realise an internal or…
In most current models of inflation based on a weakly self-coupled scalar matter field minimally coupled to gravity, the period of inflation lasts so long that, at the beginning of the inflationary period, the physical wavelengths of…
We present a model with a complex and a real scalar fields and a potential whose symmetry is explicitly broken by Planck-scale physics. For exponentially small breaking, the model accounts for the period of inflation in the early universe…
We discuss some model-independent implications of embedding (aligned) axionic inflation in string theory. As a consequence of string theoretic duality symmetries the pure cosine potentials of natural inflation are replaced by modular…
We derive an $\alpha=1/3$ - attractor potential of slow-roll inflation in the geometric set-up of three intersecting $D7$ branes under $T^6/Z_N$ type of $CY_3$-compactification within type IIB/F theory with some near-conifold regions. The…
An attractive candidate for the inflaton is an axion slowly rolling down a flat potential protected by a perturbative shift symmetry. Realisations of this idea within large field, natural and monomial inflation have been disfavoured by…
We consider models of chaotic inflation driven by the real parts of a conjugate pair of Higgs superfields involved in the spontaneous breaking of a grand unification symmetry at a scale assuming its Supersymmetric value. Employing Kaehler…
Non-commutative inflation is a modification of standard general relativity inflation which takes into account some effects of the space-time uncertainty principle motivated by ideas from string theory. The corrections to the primordial…
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…
We investigate the possibility of obtaining inflationary solutions of the slow roll type from a low energy Lagrangian coming from superstrings. The advantage of such an approach is that in these theories the scalar potential has only one…