Related papers: Cosmology with a light ghost
The recently suggested generalized unimodular gravity theory, which was originally put forward as a model of dark energy, can serve as a model of cosmological inflation driven by the effective perfect fluid -- the dark purely gravitational…
We investigate a (super-)renormalizable and ghost-free theory of gravity, showing that under a natural (exponential) ansatz of the form factor and a suitable truncation it can give rise to the Starobinsky inflationary theory in cosmological…
In a ghost inflationary scenario, we study the observational consequences of a tilt in the potential of the ghost condensate. We show how the presence of a tilt tends to make contact between the natural predictions of ghost inflation and…
Topological matter with Weyl points, such as superfluid 3He-A, provide an explicit example where there is a direct connection between the properly determined vacuum energy and the cosmological constant of the effective gravity emerging in…
On the occasion of a century from the proposal of General relativity by Einstein, I attempt to tackle some open issues in modern cosmology, via a toy but non-trivial model. Specifically, I would like to link together: (i) the smallness of…
The single field chaotic inflation model with a monomial power greater than one seems to be ruled out by the recent Planck and WMAP CMB data while Starobinsky model with a higher curvature term seems to be a viable model. Higher curvature…
We study primordial cosmology with two scalar fields that participate in inflation at the same time, by coupling quantum gravity (i.e., the theory $R+R^{2}+C^{2}$ with the fakeon prescription/projection for $C^{2}$) to a scalar field with a…
Weyl (scale) invariant theories of scalars and gravity can generate all mass scales spontaneously. In this paper we study a particularly simple version -- scale invariant $R^2$ gravity -- and show that, during an inflationary period, it…
Recent measurements from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) and the South Pole Telescope (SPT) have placed the strictest constraints on the primordial scalar perturbation spectrum, reporting a spectral index of $n_s\sim0.967-0.98$ at 95%…
Ghost inflation is a well-known framework in which cosmological fluctuations can generate enhanced primordial non-Gaussianity, typically of the equilateral type. In its original form, however, it is in tension with current observational…
The early universe according to the big bang and the grand unified theories is discussed. The shortcomings of big bang are summarized together with their resolution by inflationary cosmology. Inflation, the subsequent oscillation and decay…
We study the cosmology of K-mouflage theories at the background level. We show that the effects of the scalar field are suppressed at high matter density in the early Universe and only play a role in the late time Universe where the…
Cosmological issues of the gravitino production by the decay of a heavy scalar field $X$ are examined, assuming that the damped coherent oscillation of the scalar once dominates the energy of the universe. The coupling of the scalar field…
We explicitly confirm that spatially flat non-singular bouncing cosmologies make sense as effective theories. The presence of a non-singular bounce in a spatially flat universe implies a temporary violation of the null energy condition,…
We discuss two important modifications of inflationary paradigm. Until very recently we believed that inflation automatically leads to flatness of the universe, Omega = 1. We also thought that post-inflationary phase transitions in GUTs may…
A gauge-invariant, linear cosmological perturbation theory of an almost homogeneous and isotropic universe with dynamically evolving Newton constant G and cosmological constant $\Lambda$ is presented. The equations governing the evolution…
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…
Poincar\'e gauge theories provide an approach to gravity based on the gauging of the Poincar\'e group, whose homogeneous part generates curvature while the translational sector gives rise to torsion. In this note we revisit the stability of…
We present exact analytical solutions to the Conformal Weyl Gravity cosmological equations that are valid for both the matter and radiation dominated eras. The Primordial Nucleosynthesis process is also exhaustively studied. The main…
We investigate the stability against inhomogeneous perturbations and the appearance of ghost modes in Gauss-Bonnet gravitational theories with a non-minimally coupled scalar field, which can be regarded as either the dilaton or a…