Related papers: Natural Inflation with Hidden Scale Invariance
We demonstrate that "natural inflation", also known as "axion inflation", can be compatible with Planck 2018 measurements of the cosmic microwave background, while predicting an exponentially small tensor-to-scalar ratio, e.g., $r\sim…
In slow roll inflation, the running of the spectral tilt is generically proportional to the square of the deviation from scale invariance, $\alpha_s \propto (n_s-1)^2$, and it is therefore currently undetectable. We present a mechanism able…
We show that inflation can naturally occur at a finite temperature T>H that is sustained by dissipative effects, when the inflaton field corresponds to a pseudo Nambu-Goldstone boson of a broken gauge symmetry. Similarly to "Little Higgs"…
Recently, Cormier and Holman pointed out that fluctuations of an inflaton field $\phi$ are significantly enhanced in the model of {\it spinodal inflation} with a potential $V(\phi)$ for which the second derivative $V^{(2)}(\phi)$ changes…
We investigate the inflationary implications of extensions of Poincare symmetry. The simplest constructions with local scale invariance lead to universal predictions: the spectral index is $n_s = 1-2/N$, in excellent agreement with Planck…
In this paper we break the scale invariance of the primordial power spectrum of curvature perturbations of inflation. Introducing a singular behaviour due to spontaneous symmetry breaking in the inflaton potential, we obtain fully analytic…
While moving down the potential on its classical slow roll trajectory, the inflaton field is subject to quantum jumps, which take it up or down the potential at random. In "stochastic inflation", the impact of these quantum jumps is modeled…
In this paper we show that it is possible to achieve successful hilltop inflation in which the inflaton is identified as the modulus field in a modular invariant theory. The dilaton plays a crucial role in shaping the potential. Modular…
We formulate new conformal models of inflation and dark energy which generalise the Higgs-Dilaton scenario. We embed these models in unimodular gravity whose effect is to break scale invariance in the late time Universe. In the early…
For the inflaton field we determine a new exact solution by using the Lie symmetry analysis. Specifically, we construct a second-order differential master equation for arbitrary scalar field potential by assuming that the spectral index for…
The physics of the inflationary universe requires the study of the out of equilibrium evolution of quantum fields in curved spacetime. We present the evolution for both the geometry and the matter (described by the quantum inflaton field)…
We investigate chaotic inflation models with two scalar fields, such that one field (the inflaton) rolls while the other is trapped in a false vacuum state. The false vacuum becomes unstable when the inflaton field falls below some critical…
We present the first quantum field theory model of inflation that is renormalizable in the matter sector, with a super-Hubble inflaton mass and sub-Planckian field excursions, which is thus technically natural and consistent with a…
We investigate models of `intermediate' inflation, where the scale factor $a(t)$ grows as $a(t) = \exp (A t^f)$, $0 < f < 1$, $A$ constant. These solutions arise as exact analytic solutions for a given class of potentials for the inflaton…
Many controlled realizations of chaotic inflation employ pseudo-scalar axions. Pseudo-scalars \phi are naturally coupled to gauge fields through c \phi F \tilde{F}. In the presence of this coupling, gauge field quanta are copiously produced…
We discuss the cosmological phenomenology of biscalar-tensor models displaying a maximally symmetric Einstein-frame kinetic sector and constructed on the basis of scale symmetry and volume-preserving diffeomorphisms. These theories contain…
Out-of-equilibrium, non-perturbative, quantum effects significantly modify the standard picture of inflation in a wide class of models including new, natural, and hybrid inflation. We find that the quantum evolution of a single real…
In the recent paper [3] it was shown that the consistency of the quantum theory of a sterile scalar coupled to massive fermions requires the inclusion of odd-power terms in the potential of scalar self-interaction. One of the most important…
We propose a new inflation scenario in flux compactification, where a zero mode scalar field of extra components of the higher dimensional gauge field is identified with an inflaton. The scalar field is a pseudo Nambu-Goldstone boson of…
We show that in supersymmetry one can obtain inflationary potentials in the observable sector that are sufficiently flat at sub-Planckian field values. Structure of the supersymmetric scalar potential along a flat direction combined with…