Related papers: Scale Invariant Density Perturbations from Cyclic …
We present a new approach to gauge-invariant cosmological perturbations at second order, which is also covariant. We examine two cases in particular for a dust Friedman-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker model of any curvature: we investigate…
Scale transformations have played an extremely successful role in studies of cosmological large-scale structure by relating the non-linear spectrum of cosmological density fluctuations to the linear primordial power at longer wavelengths.…
In the ekpyrotic scenario the Universe is initially collapsing, the energy density coming from a scalar field with a negative exponential potential. On the basis of a calculation ignoring the gravitational back-reaction the authors of the…
We show that the presence of a temporal electromagnetic field on cosmological scales generates an effective cosmological constant which can account for the accelerated expansion of the universe. Primordial electromagnetic quantum…
The presence of cosmological perturbations affects the background metric and matter configuration in which the perturbations propagate. This effect, studied a long time ago for gravitational waves, also is operational for scalar…
An oscillating scalar field can behave like cold dark matter in the expanding Universe. In relativistic cosmology, this perspective is primarily reasoned by an evolution of a background scalar field and its subhorizon perturbations in a…
We use general arguments to examine the energy scales for which a quantum coherent description of gravitating quantum energy units is necessary. The cosmological dark energy density is expected to decouple from the Friedman-Lemaitre energy…
We study the effects of long wavelength entropy fluctuations on cosmological probes such as galaxy clustering, luminosity distance, and CMB temperature anisotropies. Specifically, we consider fluctuations of a massless spectator scalar…
Several scenarios have been proposed in which primordial perturbations could originate from quantum vacuum fluctuations in a phase corresponding to a collapse phase (in an Einstein frame) preceding the Big Bang. I briefly review three…
We discuss the effect of super-Hubble cosmological fluctuations on the locally measured Hubble expansion rate. We consider a large bare cosmological constant in the early universe in the presence of scalar field matter (the dominant matter…
A Planck scale inflationary era -- in a quantum gravity theory predicting discreteness of quantum geometry at the fundamental scale -- produces the scale invariant spectrum of inhomogeneities with very small tensor-to-scalar ratio of…
Using a gauge-invariant formalism we derive and solve the perturbed cosmological equations for the BSBM theory of varying fine structure 'constant'. We calculate the time evolution of inhomogeneous perturbations of the fine structure…
Cosmological consequences of the Poincare-Weyl gauge theory of gravity are considered. A generalized cosmological constant depending from the Dirac scalar field is introduced. The stage of a super-early (Harrison-Zel'dovich) scale invariant…
We discuss a mechanism that induces a time-dependent vacuum energy on cosmological scales. It is based on the instability induced renormalization triggered by the low energy quantum fluctuations in a Universe with a positive cosmological…
Perhaps standard effective field theory arguments are right, and vacuum fluctuations really do generate a huge cosmological constant. I show that if one does not assume homogeneity and an arrow of time at the Planck scale, a very large…
In some instances, e.g. near phase transitions, thermodynamic fluctuations become macroscopically relevant, and relative amplitudes grow far above the standard $N^{-1/2}$ scale, with $N$ the number of particles. Such large fluctuations are…
We review matter bounce scenarios where the matter content is dark matter and dark energy. These cosmologies predict a nearly scale-invariant power spectrum with a slightly red tilt for scalar perturbations and a small tensor-to-scalar…
Background boucing cosmologies in the framework of General Relativity, driven by a single scalar field filling the Universe, and with a quasi-matter domination period, i.e., depicting the so-called Matter Bounce Scenario, are reconstructed…
A bouncing cosmology with an initial matter-dominated phase of contraction during which scales which are currently probed with cosmological observations exit the Hubble radius provides a mechanism alternative to inflation for producing a…
The cosmological constant problem and the possibility of obtaining a see saw cosmological effect, where the effective vacuum energy is highly suppressed by the existence of a large scale is investigated in the context of scale-invariant,…