Related papers: Inflation, Universality and Attractors
We analyse the self-consistency of inflation in the Standard Model, where the Higgs field has a large non-minimal coupling to gravity. We determine the domain of energies in which this model represents a valid effective field theory as a…
The slow-roll approximation to inflation is ultimately justified by the presence of inflationary attractors for the orbits of the solutions of the dynamical equations in phase space. There are many indications that the inflaton field…
We provide type IIB string embeddings of two axion variants of natural inflation. We use a combination of RR 2 form axions as the inflaton field and have its potential generated by non perturbative effects in the superpotential. Besides…
We revisit models of natural inflation and show that the single-field effective theory described by the potential $V(a)\sim \cos\frac{a}{f}$ breaks down as the inflaton $a$ makes large-field excursions, even for values of $f$ smaller than…
We discuss a supersymmetric version of DBI (Dirac-Born-Infeld) inflation, which is a typical inflation model in string cosmology. The supersymmetric DBI action together with a superpotential always leads to correction terms associated with…
We propose a new class of inflationary models in which inflation takes place while the inflaton is climbing up a potential hill due to a coupling to gravity. We study their attractor behavior, and investigate its relation with known…
Recently we identified a new class of (super)conformally invariant theories which allow inflation even if the scalar potential is very steep in terms of the original conformal variables. Observational predictions of a broad class of such…
Inflation near a maximum of the potential is studied when non-local derivative operators are included in the inflaton Lagrangian. Such terms can impose additional sources of friction on the field. For an arbitrary spacetime geometry, these…
We revisit phenomenological as well as string-theoretical aspects of D-brane inflation cosmological models. Phenomenologically these models stand out on par with $\alpha$-attractors, as models with Planck-compatible values of $n_s$, moving…
A sizeable tensor-to-scalar ratio, such as recently claimed by BICEP2, would imply a scale of inflation at the typical scale of supersymmetric grand unification. This could be an accident, or strong support for supersymmetric theories.…
Cosmological $\alpha$-attractors stand out as particularly compelling models to describe inflation in the very early universe, naturally meeting tight observational bounds from cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiments. We investigate…
Inflation creates perturbations for the large scale structures in the universe, but it also dilutes everything. Therefore it is pertinent that the end of inflation must explain how to excite the Standard Model {\it dof} along with the dark…
We study primordial perturbations from hyperinflation, proposed recently and based on a hyperbolic field-space. In the previous work, it was shown that the field-space angular momentum supported by the negative curvature modifies the…
In this paper we will illustrate how to constrain unavoidable K\"ahler corrections for ${\cal N}=1$ supergravity (SUGRA) inflation from the recent Planck data. We will show that the non-renormalizable K\"ahler operators will induce in…
The advent of explicit Dirac-Born-Infeld (DBI) inflationary models within string theory has drawn renewed interest to the cosmological role of unusual scalar field dynamics, usually referred to as k-inflation. In this situation, the…
We extend the idea of conformal attractors in inflation to non-canonical sectors by developing a non-canonical conformally invariant theory from two different approaches. In the first approach, namely, ${\cal N}=1$ supergravity, the…
We propose a large class of supergravity models in terms of a single chiral matter superfield, leading to (almost) arbitrary single-field inflationary scalar potentials similar to the F-term in rigid supersymmetry. Those scalar potentials…
Although the paradigm of inflation has been extensively studied to demonstrate how macroscopic inhomogeneities in our universe originate from quantum fluctuations, most of the established literature ignores the crucial role that…
Based on a previously derived superstring model possessing a cosmological sector that mimics Starobinsky inflation, we analyze several questions addressed in the recent literature: the generation of an effective $R^2$-term, the stability of…
Inflation is an early period of accelerated cosmic expansion, thought to be sourced by high energy physics. A key task today is to use the influx of increasingly precise observational data to constrain the plethora of inflationary models…