Related papers: Inflation on a Slippery Slope
A scalar field with an exponential potential has been proposed as a model of inflation (called power-law inflation). Although it admits an exact solution, the integrability of the system has not been shown.We uncover the hidden symmetries…
We examine the classical dynamics of multifield inflation models with quadratic potentials. Such models are shown to have inflationary attractors in phase space, consistent with the stretching of phase space trajectories along the volume…
Motivated by the string landscape, inflation may happen on a high dimensional complicated potential. We propose a new way to construct some high dimensional random potentials, and study inflation on top of that, for up to 50-dimensions in…
Recently we introduced an inflationary setup in which the inflaton fields are matrix valued scalar fields with a generic quartic potential, M-flation. In this work we study the landscape of various inflationary models arising from…
A new family of inflation models is introduced and studied. The models are characterised by a scalar potential which, far from the origin, approaches an inflationary plateau in a power-law manner, while near the origin becomes monomial, as…
We analyze the flow into inflation for generic "single-clock" systems, by combining an effective field theory approach with a dynamical-systems analysis. In this approach, we construct an expansion for the potential-like term in the…
We propose a multi-natural inflation model in which the single-field inflaton potential consists of two or more sinusoidal potentials that are comparable in size, but have different periodicity with a possible non-zero relative phase. The…
Random, multifield functions can set generic expectations for landscape-style cosmologies. We consider the inflationary implications of a landscape defined by a Gaussian random function, which is perhaps the simplest such scenario. Many key…
The "de Sitter constraint" on the space of effective scalar field theories consistent with superstring theory provides a lower bound on the slope of the potential of a scalar field which dominates the evolution of the Universe, e.g., a…
We explore the dynamics of assisted quintessence, where more than one scalar field is present with the same potential. For potentials with tracking solutions, the fields naturally approach the same values; in the context of inflation this…
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…
Power suppression of the cosmic microwave background on the largest observable scales could provide valuable clues about the particle physics underlying inflation. Here we consider the prospect of power suppression in the context of the…
Recent years have seen the introduction of various multi-field inflationary scenarios in which the curvature and geodesics of the scalar manifold play a crucial role. We outline a simple description that unifies these different proposals…
Effects caused by an additional massive scalar field interacting with an inflaton field are analyzed. Inflation is shown to have two stages, the first of which is dominant and characterized by ultraslow dynamics of the inflaton field.…
We propose a scalar potential of inflation, motivated by modular invariant supergravity, and compute the angular power spectra of the adiabatic density perturbations that result from this model. The potential consists of three scalar…
The latest results from PLANCK impose strong constraints on features in the spectrum of the curvature perturbations from inflation. We analyse the possibility of particle production induced by sharp turns of the trajectory in field space in…
Inflation in cosmology is a specific stage preceding the Big Bang, aimed at solving both old background problems and new perturbation issues. Single-field inflation is a candidate to illustrate the picture of the initial universe, and…
We study a scalar field with non-minimal kinetic coupling to itself and to the curvature. The slow rolling conditions allowing an inflationary background have been found. The quadratic and Higgs type potentials have been considered, and the…
There are well-known criteria on the potential and field-space geometry for determining if slow-roll, slow-turn, multi-field inflation is possible. However, even though it has been a topic of much recent interest, slow-roll, rapid-turn…
We examine inflationary universe models driven by scalar fields with logarithmic potentials of the form $V(\phi) = V_0 \phi^p(\ln \phi)^q$. Combining the slow-roll approximation with asymptotic techniques, we identify regions of the…