Related papers: Power spectrum oscillations from Planck-suppressed…
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…
The effective field theory (EFT) of inflation provides a natural framework to study the new physical effects on primordial perturbations. Recently a healthy extension of the EFT of inflation with high-order operators has been proposed,…
We propose an inflationary scenario, M-flation, in which inflation is driven by three $N\times N$ hermitian matrices $\Phi_i, i=1,2,3$. The inflation potential of our model, which is strongly motivated from string theory, is constructed…
Effective field theory is a powerful organizing principle that allows to describe physics below a certain scale model-independently. Above that energy scale, identified with the cutoff, the EFT description breaks down and new physics is…
We revisit models of natural inflation and show that the single-field effective theory described by the potential $V(a)\sim \cos\frac{a}{f}$ breaks down as the inflaton $a$ makes large-field excursions, even for values of $f$ smaller than…
Flux couplings to string theory axions yield super-Planckian field ranges along which the axion potential energy grows. At the same time, other aspects of the physics remain essentially unchanged along these large displacements, respecting…
In this paper my prime objective is to analyze the constraints on a sub-Planckian excursion of a single inflaton field within Effective Field Theory framework in a model independent fashion. For a generic single field inflationary…
We reexamine inflation due to a constrained inflaton in the model of a complex scalar. Inflaton evolves along a spiral-like valley of special scalar potential in the scalar field space just like single field inflation. Sub-Planckian…
A new mechanism to control Planck-scale corrections to the inflationary eta parameter is proposed. A common approach to the eta problem is to impose a shift symmetry on the inflaton field. However, this symmetry has to remain unbroken by…
We derive the power spectrum $\mathcal P(k)$ of the density perturbations produced during inflation up to second-order corrections in the standard slow-roll approximation for an inflaton with more than one degree of freedom. We also present…
An appealing explanation for the Planck data is provided by inflationary models with a singular non-canonical kinetic term: a Laurent expansion of the kinetic function translates into a potential with a nearly shift-symmetric plateau in…
Because the inflationary mechanism is extremely sensitive to UV-physics, the construction of theoretically robust models of inflation provides a unique window on Planck-scale physics. We review efforts to use an axion with a shift symmetry…
In the context of single field inflation, models with a quadratic potential and models with a natural potential with subplanckian decay constant are in tension with the Planck data. We show that, when embedded in a two-field model with an…
We clarify inflaton models by considering them as effective field theories in the Ginzburg-Landau spirit.In this new approach, the precise form of the inflationary potential is constructed from the present WMAP data, and a useful scheme is…
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…
We have developed a precise dictionary between the spectrum of primordial density fluctuations and the parameters of the effective field theory (EFT) of inflation that determine the primordial power spectrum (PPS). At lowest order the EFT…
Trapped inflation is a mechanism in which particle production from the moving inflaton is the main source of friction in the inflaton equation of motion. The produced fields source inflaton perturbations, which dominate over the vacuum…
In the lights of current BICEP2 observations accompanied with the PLANCK satellite results, it has been observed that the simple single field chaotic inflationary models provide a good agreement with their spectral index n_s and large…
A model is developed in which the inflaton potential experiences a sudden small change in its second derivative (the effective mass of the inflaton). An exact treatment demonstrates that the resulting density perturbation has a quasi-flat…
A suitable coupling of the inflaton phi to a vector kinetic term F^2 gives frozen and scale invariant vector perturbations. We compute the cosmological perturbations zeta that result from such coupling by taking into account the classical…