Related papers: Conflation: a new type of accelerated expansion
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…
Inflation may have been driven by a component which violated the Null-Energy Condition, thereby leading to {\it super inflation}. We provide the formalism to study cosmological perturbations when such a component is described by a scalar…
This thesis is dedicated to studying cosmological inflation, which is a period of accelerated expansion in the very early Universe that is required to explain the observed anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background. Inflation, when…
We present a number of new, exact scalar field cosmologies where the potential consists of two or more exponential terms. Such potentials are motivated by supergravity or superstring models formulated in higher dimensional spacetimes that…
Combining intervals of ekpyrotic (ultra-slow) contraction with a (non-singular) classical bounce naturally leads to a novel cyclic theory of the universe in which the Hubble parameter, energy density and temperature oscillate periodically,…
Starting from pure multidimensional gravity with curvature-nonlinear terms but no matter fields in the initial action, we obtain a cosmological model with two effective scalar fields related to the size of two extra factor spaces. The model…
We present a unified framework that simultaneously addresses the dynamics of early-time cosmic inflation and late-time cosmic acceleration within the context of a single scalar field non-minimally coupled to gravity. By employing an…
A new class of gravity-matter models defined in terms of two independent non-Riemannian volume forms (alternative generally covariant integration measure densities) on the space-time manifold are studied in some detail. These models involve…
Observations indicate that the universe is effectively flat, but they do not rule out a closed universe. The role of positive curvature is negligible at late times, but can be crucial in the early universe. In particular, positive curvature…
By using the thermodynamic theory of irreversible processes and Einstein general relativity, a cosmological model is proposed where the early universe is considered as a mixture of a scalar field with a matter field. The scalar field refers…
We develop a cosmological model where primordial inflation is driven by a 'solid', defined as a system of three derivatively coupled scalar fields obeying certain symmetries and spontaneously breaking a certain subgroup of these. The…
Oscillons are massive, long-lived, localized excitations of a scalar field. We show that in a large class of well-motivated single-field models, inflation is followed by self-resonance, leading to copious oscillon generation and a lengthy…
A field kinetic coupling with the Einstein tensor leads to a gravitationally enhanced friction during inflation, by which even steep potentials with theoretically natural model parameters can drive cosmic acceleration. In the presence of…
Two extensions of ideas lying in the basis of the inflationary scenario of the early Universe and their effect on the large scale structure of the present-day Universe are discussed. The first of them is the possibility of fast phase…
This thesis is dedicated to analysing the generation and destruction of quantum correlations in the context of inflationary cosmology and an experiment of 'analogue' preheating. Inflation is a phase of accelerated expansion of the Universe,…
Scalar-tensor theories are studied in the context of cosmological evolution, where the expansion history of the Universe is reconstructed. It is considered quintessence/phantom models, where inflation and cosmic acceleration are reproduced.…
The pole-like accelerated expansion stages purely driven by the coupling between the gravity and the dilaton field without referring to the potential term can be realized in a class of generalized gravity theories. We consider three such…
Phantom Cosmology provides an unique opportunity to "connect" the phantom driven (low en- ergy meV scale) dark energy phase to the (high energy GUT scale) inflationary era. This is possible because the energy density increases in phantom…
We demonstrate that finite time singularities of Type IV can be consistently incorporated in the Universe's cosmological evolution, either appearing in the inflationary era, or in the late-time regime. While using only one scalar field…
Scalar-tensor theory of gravity with non-minimal coupling is a fairly good candidate for dark energy, required to explain late-time cosmic evolution. Here we study the very early stage of evolution of the universe with a modified version of…