Related papers: High-Scale Axions without Isocurvature from Inflat…
In this work, we propose a model of warm inflation driven by axion-like particles interacting with $U(1)$ gauge fields, with implications for the early universe's thermal evolution. By extending traditional warm inflation models, we…
The observed power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) is consistent with inflationary cosmology, which predicts a nearly scale-invariant power spectrum of quantum fluctuations of the inflaton field as they exit the Hubble…
We study a particular supersymmetric realization of the Peccei-Quinn symmetry which provides a suitable candidate for the curvaton field. The class of models considered also solves the mu problem, while generating the Peccei-Quinn scale…
Constraints on inflationary models typically assume only the standard models of cosmology and particle physics. By extending the neutrino sector to include a new interaction with a light scalar mediator ($m_{\phi}\sim$MeV), it is possible…
We exploit the complementarity among supersymmetry, inflation, axions, Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) and Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMB) to constrain supersymmetric axion models in the light of the recent Planck and BICEP…
Last year we argued that if slow-roll inflation followed the decay of a false vacuum in a large landscape, the steepening of the scalar potential between the inflationary plateau and the barrier generically leads to a potentially observable…
Chain Inflation is an alternative to slow roll inflation in which the universe undergoes a series of transitions between different vacua. The density perturbations (studied in this paper) are seeded by the probabilistic nature of tunneling…
Constraints on inflationary scenarios and isocurvature perturbations have excluded the simplest and most generic models of dark matter based on QCD axions. Considering non-minimal kinetic couplings of scalar fields to gravity substantially…
Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) observations are used to constrain reheating to Standard Model (SM) particles after a period of inflation. As a light spectator field, the SM Higgs boson acquires large field values from its quantum…
We show that a supersymmetric axion model naturally induces a hybrid inflation with the waterfall field identified as a Peccei-Quinn scalar. The Peccei-Quinn scale is predicted to be around 10^{15}GeV for reproducing the large-scale density…
We extend the standard theory of cosmological perturbations to homogeneous but anisotropic universes. We present an exhaustive computation for the case of a Bianchi I model, with a residual isotropy between two spatial dimensions, which is…
We propose a minimal extension of the Standard Model with the Peccei-Quinn (PQ) scalar field and explain the relic density of the QCD axion through the kinetic misalignment with a relatively small axion decay constant. To this purpose, we…
Cosmological perturbations, originating in the quantum fluctuations of the fields that drive inflation, are observed to be nearly scale invariant at the largest scales. At smaller scales, however, perturbations are not severely constrained…
We present new constraints on spectator axion-${\rm U}(1)$ gauge field interactions during inflation using the latest $Planck$ (PR4) and BICEP/Keck 2018 data releases. This model can source tensor perturbations from amplified gauge field…
We present global fits of cosmologically stable axion-like particle and QCD axion models in the mass range 0.1 neV to 10 eV. We focus on the case where the Peccei-Quinn symmetry is broken before the end of inflation, such that the initial…
Space-based missions studying the cosmic microwave background (CMB) have progressively refined the parameter space in conventional models of inflation shortly ($\sim 10^{-37}$ seconds) after the big bang. While most inflationary scenarios…
The standard model of cosmology with nearly Gaussian, isotropic, scale invariant and adiabatic initial conditions describes the cosmological observations well. However, the study of any deviation from the mentioned conditions will open up a…
The naturalness problem of PQ symmetry motivates study of the heavy QCD axion, with masses $m_a >$ 1 MeV generated at scales above the QCD scale, and low values of the PQ symmetry breaking scale, $f_a$. We compute the abundance of such…
The axion is the most attractive candidate to solve the strong CP problem in QCD. If it exists, the inflationary universe produces axion fluctuations which are mixtures of isocurvature and adiabatic fluctuations in general. We investigate…
In axion gauge field inflation an axion-like particle driving cosmic inflation is coupled to the Chern-Simons density of an Abelian or non-Abelian gauge group. In the case of a non-Abelian gauge group, this can lead to the formation of a…