Related papers: Vacuum Selection on Axionic Landscapes
We study the Sinai model for the diffusion of a particle in a one dimensional quenched random energy landscape. We consider the particular case of discrete energy landscapes made of random +/- 1 jumps on the semi infinite line Z+ with a…
Large field inflation is arguably the simplest and most natural variant of slow-roll inflation. Axion monodromy may be the most promising framework for realising this scenario. As one of its defining features, the long-range polynomial…
In an adaptive population which models financial markets and distributed control, we consider how the dynamics depends on the diversity of the agents' initial preferences of strategies. When the diversity decreases, more agents tend to…
Marginal optima are minima or maxima of a function with many nearly flat directions. In settings with many competing optima, marginal ones tend to attract algorithms and physical dynamics. Often, the important family of marginal attractors…
Most high-energy constructions that realise a phase of cosmic inflation contain many degrees of freedom. Yet, cosmological observations are all consistent with single-field embeddings. We show how volume selection effects explain this…
Models of large-field inflation based on axion-like fields with shift symmetries can be simple and natural, and make a promising prediction of detectable primordial gravitational waves. The Weak Gravity Conjecture is known to constrain the…
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…
I propose a new mechanism to account for the observed tiny but finite dark energy in terms of a non-Abelian Higgs theory, which has infinitely many perturbative vacua characterized by a winding number, in the framework of inflationary…
The damping of the axionic string motion due to the surrounding plasma is estimated by a detailed calculation of the fermion scatter from a global string and it is shown that the friction force on the string can be neglected before the…
On compactification from higher dimensions, a single free massive scalar field gives rise to a set of effective four-dimensional scalar fields, each with a different mass. These can cooperate to drive a period of inflation known as assisted…
A major impediment towards the industrial adoption of decentralized distributed systems comes from the difficulty to theoretically prove that these systems exhibit the required behavior. In this paper, we use probability theory to analyze a…
We embed natural inflation in an explict string theory model and derive observables in cosmology. We achieve this by compactifying the type IIB string on a Calabi-Yau orientifold, stabilizing moduli via the Large Volume Scenario, and…
Recently a dynamical selection mechanism for vacua based on search optimization was proposed in the context of false-vacuum eternal inflation on the landscape. The search algorithm, defined by local vacuum transitions, is optimal in regions…
Warm inflation has been noted previously as a possible way to implement inflationary models compatible with the dS swampland bounds. But often in these discussions the heat bath dynamics is kept largely unspecified. We point out that the…
We consider random energy landscapes constructed from d-dimensional lattices or trees. The distribution of the number of local minima in such landscapes follows a large deviation principle and we derive the associated law exactly for…
Stochastic spreading models defined on complex network topologies are used to mimic the diffusion of diseases, information, and opinions in real-world systems. Existing theoretical approaches to the characterization of the models in terms…
If the inflaton is a pseudo-scalar axion, the axion shift symmetry can protect the flatness of its potential from too large radiative corrections. This possibility, known as natural inflation, requires an axion scale which is greater than…
We compute the amplitude of the non-Gaussianities in inflationary models with multiple, uncoupled scalar fields. This calculation thus applies to all models of assisted inflation, including N-flation, where inflation is driven by multiple…
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…
Growth is a multi-layered phenomenon in human societies, composed of socioeconomic and demographic change at many different scales. Yet, standard macroeconomic indicators average over most of these processes, blurring the spatial and…