Related papers: Novel quantum initial conditions for inflation
If a coupling between the inflaton and the Gauss-Bonnet term is introduced, many models of inflation that were ruled out by the most recent Planck data can be made viable again. The predictions for the scalar spectral index and…
We propose a suitable vacuum state for a quantized Dirac field interacting with a classical scalar field in a Friedman-Robertson-Walker-Lemaitre spacetime. This state is constructed from an extended version of the adiabatic expansion of the…
Cosmological perturbations generated during inflation exhibit striking quantum features, including entanglement and high circuit complexity. Yet their observational signatures remain effectively indistinguishable from classical stochastic…
It is sometimes argued that observation of tensor modes from inflation would provide the first evidence for quantum gravity. However, in the usual inflationary formalism, also the scalar modes involve quantised metric perturbations. We…
Using the Ashtekar-Sen variables of loop quantum gravity, a new class of exact solutions to the equations of quantum cosmology is found for gravity coupled to a scalar field, that corresponds to inflating universes. The scalar field, which…
This review article aims at presenting the theory of inflation. We first describe the background spacetime behavior during the slow-roll phase and analyze how inflation ends and the Universe reheats. Then, we present the theory of…
We study initial conditions for inflation in scenarios where the inflaton potential has a plateau shape. Such models are those most favored by Planck data and can be obtained in a large number of model classes. As a representative example,…
Imposing initial conditions to nonequilibrium systems at some time t_0 leads, in renormalized quantum field theory, to the appearance of singularities in the variable t-t_0 in relevant physical quantities, such as energy density and…
In this thesis we will primarily demonstrate how additional scalar degrees of freedom - which are motivated from many high-energy embeddings - open up new observational windows onto the physics of inflation. We construct a Bayesian…
Early universe equations of state including realistic interactions between constituents are built up. Under certain reasonable assumptions, these equations are able to generate an inflationary regime prior to the nucleosynthesis period. The…
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…
After the last PLANCK CMB data the plateau inflationary potentials are favored. I give some examples of such inflationary models emphasizing particularly on the Starobinsky model and its supergravity embedding. I discuss the crucial…
Cosmological inflation generates a spectrum of density perturbations that can seed the cosmic structures we observe today. These perturbations are usually computed as the result of the gravitationally-induced spontaneous creation of…
In this paper, we discuss quantisation of cosmological tensor perturbations in the Kasner-de Sitter space-time as a model of (pre-)inflation. Quantisation in such an anisotropic background has been argued to be problematic based on the fact…
We investigate a particle physics model for cosmic inflation based on the following assumptions: (i) there are at least two complex scalar fields; (ii) the scalar potential is bounded from below and remains perturbative up to the Planck…
We study the quantum evolution of the early universe, its semi-classical analogue together with inflationary regime, in view of a generalized modified theory of gravity. The action is built by supplementing the non-minimally coupled…
We use the techniques of effective field theory in an expanding universe to examine the effect of choosing an excited inflationary initial state built over the Bunch-Davies state on the CMB bi-spectrum. We find that even for Hadamard…
Free scalar fields in de Sitter space have a one-parameter family of states invariant under the de Sitter group, including the standard thermal vacuum. We show that, except for the thermal vacuum, these states are unphysical when…
We investigate the initiation of cosmic inflation, in full numerical relativity, from pre-inflationary scenarios with large tensor and vector fluctuations in the metric. These settings are characterized by having large values in the Weyl…
Cosmological inflation remains to be a unique mechanism of generation of plausible initial conditions in the early universe. In particular, it generates the primordial quasiclassical perturbations with power spectrum determined by the…