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Non-commutative geometry at inflation can give arise to parity violating modulations of the primordial power spectrum. We develop the statistical tools needed for investigating whether these modulations are evident in the Cosmic Microwave…
We show how the primordial bispectrum of density perturbations from inflation may be characterised in terms of manifestly gauge-invariant cosmological perturbations at second order. The primordial metric perturbation, zeta, describing the…
Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) experiments, such as WMAP and Planck, measure intensity anisotropies and build maps using a \emph{linearized} formula for relating them to the temperature blackbody fluctuations. However such a procedure…
We present a simple inflationary scenario that can produce arbitrarily large spherical underdense or overdense regions embedded in a standard Lambda cold dark matter paradigm, which we refer to as bubbles. We analyze the effect such bubbles…
We study the observational implications of a class of inflationary models wherein the inflaton is coupled to the Einstein tensor through a generalized non-minimal derivative coupling (GNMDC). In particular, we explore whether these models…
Recent released WMAP data show a low value of quadrupole in the CMB temperature fluctuations, which confirms the early observations by COBE. In this paper, a scenario, in which a contracting phase is followed by an inflationary phase, is…
In this article we discuss the role of current and future CMB measurements in pinning down the model of inflation responsible for the generation of primordial curvature perturbations. By considering a parameterization of the effective field…
Adams et al. (1997b) have noted that according to our current understanding of the unification of fundamental interactions, there should have been phase transitions associated with spontaneous symmetry breaking {\em during} the inflationary…
Models of axion inflation are particularly interesting since they provide a natural justification for the flatness of the potential over a super-Planckian distance, namely the approximate shift-symmetry of the inflaton. In addition, most of…
We investigate early dark energy models in the context of the lensing anomaly by considering two different Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) datasets: a complete Planck, and a second one primarily based on SPTPol and Planck temperature…
We study the mixed scalar-tensor two-point function in icosahedral inflation. Within the regime of validity of the effective field theory, this has to be perturbatively small; in particular, much smaller than the scalar spectrum. However,…
The latest analysis of the cosmic microwave background by the Planck team finds more smoothing of the acoustic peaks in the temperature power spectrum than predicted by $\Lambda$CDM. Here we investigate whether this additional smoothing can…
Cross-correlating the lensing signals of galaxies and comic microwave background (CMB) fluctuations is expected to provide valuable cosmological information. In particular it may help tighten constraints on parameters describing the…
CMB polarization provides a unique window into cosmological inflation; the amplitude of the B-mode polarization from last scattering is uniquely sensitive to the energetics of inflation. However, numerous systematic effects arising from…
The enormous red-shifting of the modes during the inflationary epoch suggests that physics at the very high energy scales may modify the primordial perturbation spectrum. Therefore, the measurements of the anisotropies in the Cosmic…
It is well known that processes of first order phase transitions may have occurred in the inflationary era. If one or more occurred well before the end of inflation, the nucleated bubbles are stretched to large scales and the primordial…
We consider a double-inflationary model with two massive scalar fields interacting only gravitationally in the context of a flat cold dark matter (CDM) Universe. The cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature anisotropies produced in…
Multifield models of inflation with nonminimal couplings are in excellent agreement with the recent results from {\it Planck}. Across a broad range of couplings and initial conditions, such models evolve along an effectively single-field…
Classically scale-invariant (and perturbative) theories provide a way to understand large hierarchies, as scales are generated through dimensional transmutation. They always lead to first-order phase transitions, since symmetries are…
Second-order power spectra of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) anisotropies due to random primordial perturbations at the matter dominant stage are studied, based on the relativistic second-order theory of perturbations in flat…