Related papers: Novel quantum initial conditions for inflation
We renormalize the divergences in the energy-momentum tensor of a scalar field that begins its evolution in an effective initial state. The effective initial state is a formalism that encodes the signatures of new physics in the structure…
With the growing consensus on simple power law inflation models not being favored by the PLANCK observation, dynamics for the non-standard form of the inflaton potential gain significant interest in the recent past. In this paper, we…
Current observational data is consistent with the universe being slightly closed. We investigate families of singular and non-singular closed instantons that could describe the beginning of a closed inflationary universe. We calculate the…
The conditions that allow us to consider the vacuum expectation value of the energy-momentum tensor as a statistical average, at some particular temperature, are given. When the mean value of created particles is stationary, a planckian…
The full set of cosmological observables coming from linear scalar and tensor perturbations of loop quantum cosmology is computed in the presence of inverse-volume corrections. Background inflationary solutions are found at linear order in…
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 use the method of the Lewis-Riesenfeld invariant to analyze the dynamical properties of the Mukhanov-Sasaki Hamiltonian and, following this approach, investigate whether we can obtain possible candidates for initial states in the context…
We calculate the quantum gravitational corrections to the Mukhanov-Sasaki equation obtained by the canonical quantization of the inflaton-gravity system. Our approach, which is based on the Born-Oppenheimer decomposition of the resulting…
We derive the quantum energy-momentum tensor and the corresponding quantum equation of state for gauge field theory using the effective Lagrangian approach. The energy-momentum tensor has a term proportional to the space-time metric and…
We study the analytic structure of in-in correlation functions in a deSitter background. The aim of this study is to probe the initial conditions for inflation through the features of correlation functions of the field fluctuations, and…
This note derives the analogue of the Mukhanov-Sasaki variables both for scalar and tensor perturbations in the 1+3 covariant formalism. The possibility of generalizing them to non-flat Friedmann-Lemaitre universes is discussed.
We introduce a novel set of stability conditions for vacua with broken Lorentz symmetry. The first class of conditions require that the energy be minimized under small geometric deformations, which translates into requiring the positivity…
For most initial conditions, cosmologically relevant physical modes were trans-planckian at the bounce time, often by many magnitude orders. We improve the usual loop quantum cosmology calculation of the primordial power spectra -- in the…
The Higgs field is an attractive candidate for the inflaton because it is an observationally confirmed fundamental scalar field. Importantly, it can be modeled by the most general renormalizable scalar potential. However, if the classical…
We consider a model of inflation consisting a single fluid with a time-dependent equation of state. In this phenomenological picture, two periods of inflation are separated by an intermediate non-inflationary stage which can be either a…
It has been argued that the standard inflationary scenario suffers from a serious deficiency as a model for the origin of the seeds of cosmic structure: it can not truly account for the transition from an early homogeneous and isotropic…
There seems to exist agreement about the fact that inflation squeezes the quantum state of cosmological perturbations and entangles modes with wavenumbers $\vec k$ and $-\vec k$. Paradoxically, this result has been used to justify both the…
The problem of the initial conditions for the oscillator model of quantum dissipative systems is studied. It is argued that, even in the classical case, the hypothesis that the environment is in thermal equilibrium implies a statistical…
Starting from an initial state of thermal equilibrium, we derive an expression for the quantum fluctuation in the energy density during the inflationary epoch in terms of the mode functions for the inflaton field. The effect of this…
We use the 3+1 formalism of numerical relativity to investigate the robustness of Starobinsky and Higgs inflation to inhomogeneous initial conditions, in the form of either field gradient or kinetic energy density. Sub-Hubble and…