Related papers: Robustness of Inflation to Inhomogeneous Initial C…
We investigate the circumstances under which cosmic inflation can arise from very inhomogeneous initial conditions using numerical relativity simulations. Previous studies have not considered cases with non-zero momentum density due to…
We consider the robustness of small-field inflation in the presence of scalar field inhomogeneities. Previous numerical work has shown that if the scalar potential is flat only over a narrow interval, such as in commonly considered…
Using numerical solutions of the full Einstein field equations coupled to a scalar inflaton field in 3+1 dimensions, we study the conditions under which a universe that is initially expanding, highly inhomogeneous and dominated by gradient…
We investigate the effects of large inhomogeneities in both the inflaton field and its momentum. We find that in general, large kinetic perturbations reduce the number of e-folds of inflation. In particular, we observe that inflationary…
While cosmological inflation can erase primordial inhomogeneities, it is possible that inflation may not begin in a significantly inhomogeneous universe. This issue is particularly pressing in multifield scenarios, where even the…
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…
Extending our previous work on the robustness of inflation to perturbations in the scalar field, we investigate the effects of perturbations in the transverse traceless part of the extrinsic curvature on the evolution of an inhomogeneous…
We analyze the onset of inflation for a simple single-field model when the system begins with significant inhomogeneities on length-scales shorter than the initial Hubble radius. We incorporate certain nonlinear interactions among the…
Within the framework of scalar-tensor theories, we study the conditions that allow single field inflation dynamics on small cosmological scales to significantly differ from that of the large scales probed by the observations of cosmic…
The initial condition problem of inflation is examined from the perspective of both spacetime embedding and scalar field dynamics. The spacetime embedding problem is solved for arbitrary initial spatial curvature Omega, which generalizes…
We study the robustness of single-field inflation against inhomogeneities. We derive a simple analytic criterion on the shape of the potential for successful inflation in the presence of inhomogeneities, and demonstrate its validity using…
We discuss the issue of setting appropriate initial conditions for inflation. Specifically, we consider natural inflation model and discuss the fine tuning required for setting almost homogeneous initial conditions over a region of order…
Heavy isocurvature fields may have a strong influence on the low energy dynamics of curvature perturbations during inflation, as long as the inflationary trajectory becomes non-geodesic in the multi-field target space (the landscape). If…
We study how the initial inhomogeneities of the spatial curvature affect the onset of inflation in the closed universe. We consider a cosmological model which contains a radiation and a cosmological constant. In order to treat the…
Cosmic inflation is arguably the most favoured paradigm of the very early Universe. It postulates an early phase of fast, nearly exponential, and accelerated expansion. Inflationary models are capable of explaining the overall flatness and…
The possibility of the resilience of the beginning of inflation under unfavorable conditions is examined by considering the initial state of the inflaton field to be in the form of a relativistic gas with some of its properties in close…
Cosmological perturbations, originating in the quantum fluctuations of the fields that drive inflation, are observed to be nearly scale invariant at the largest scales. At smaller scales, however, perturbations are not severely constrained…
Massive fields during inflation provide an interesting opportunity to test new physics at very high energy scales. Meanwhile in fundamental realizations, the inflationary field space typically has a curved geometry, which may leave…
A remarkable prediction of the Standard Model is that, in the absence of corrections lifting the energy density, the Higgs potential becomes negative at large field values. If the Higgs field samples this part of the potential during…
We investigate the possibility that nonlinear gravitational effects influence the preheating era after inflation. Our work is based on numerical solutions of the inhomogeneous Einstein field equations, and is free of perturbative…