Related papers: Planck scale operators, inflation and fine tuning
We investigate the insensitivity of the predictions of inflationary models with respect to modifications of Planck energy physics. The modification we consider consists in replacing the usual dispersion relation by nonlinear ones. This way…
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 show how we can implement chaotic inflation in the context of supergravity by conveniently selecting the functional form of a strong enough non-minimal coupling between the inflaton and the Ricci scalar curvature. The procedure can be…
It is well known that large Hubble-induced supergravity corrections to the inflaton field can ruin the flatness of the potential, thus creating a tension between slow-roll inflation and supergravity. In this paper we show that it is…
We continue the analysis of perturbations in vector inflation. The dominant theme of this paper is the long wavelength limit of perturbations in small fields inflation and the controversial issue of its linear stability. We explain the…
We derive a general criterion that defines all single-field models leading to Starobinsky-like inflation and to universal predictions for the spectral index and tensor-to-scalar ratio, which are in agreement with Planck data. Out of all the…
Most of the inflationary models that are in agreement with the Planck data rely on the presence of non-renormalizable operators. If the connection to low energy particle physics is made, the renormalization group (RG) introduces a…
The Planck or the quantum gravity scale, being $16$ orders of magnitude greater than the electroweak scale, is often considered inaccessible by current experimental techniques. However, it was shown recently by one of the current authors…
A new modified string-inspired modular invariant supergravity model is proposed and is applied to realize the slow roll inflation in Einstein frame. Because inflation deals with Planck scale physics, the dilaton can be a strong candidate…
I explain the methods that are used in field theory for problems involving typical momenta on two or more widely disparate scales. The principal topics are: (a) renormalization, which treats the problem of taking an ultra-violet cut-off to…
Most models of inflation have small parameters, either to guarantee sufficient inflation or the correct magnitude of the density perturbations. In this paper we show that, in supersymmetric theories with weak scale supersymmetry breaking,…
Gauge-flation is a recently proposed model in which inflation is driven solely by a non-Abelian gauge field thanks to a specific higher order derivative operator. The nature of the operator is such that it does not introduce ghosts. We…
We investigate the inflationary realization in the context of unimodular $F(T)$ gravity, which is based on the $F(T)$ modification of teleparallel gravity, in which one imposes the unimodular condition through the use of Lagrange…
From the point of view of the gauge hierarchy problem, introducing an intermediate scale in addition to TeV scale and the Planck scale ($M_{\rm Pl} = 2.4 \times 10^{18}\,{\rm GeV}$) is unfavorable. In that way, a gauge coupling unification…
We consider a phenomenological model of inflation where the inflaton is the phase of a complex scalar field $\Phi$. Planck-suppressed operators of $\mathcal O(f^5/M_\mathrm{pl})$ modify the geometry of the vev $\langle \Phi \rangle$ at…
Planck scale physics represents a future challenge, located between particle physics and general relativity. The Planck scale marks a threshold beyond which the old description of spacetime breaks down and conceptually new phenomena must…
Recent observations about the cosmic microwave background evidence a clear discrepancy between the scale of inflation and the Planck scale expected in the conventional inflationary picture, based on simple chaotic inflationary models. This…
It has been pointed out that the perturbation spectrum predicted by inflation may be sensitive to a natural ultraviolet cutoff, thus potentially providing an experimentally accessible window to aspects of Planck scale physics. A priori, a…
Within the $\alpha$-attractors framework we investigate scalar potentials with the same pole as the one featured in the kinetic term. We show that, in field space, this leads to directions without a plateau. Using this, we present a…
There is no known fundamental reason to demand as a cosmological initial condition that the bulk possess an SO(3,1) isometry. On the contrary, one expects bulk curvature terms that violate the SO(3,1) isometry at early epochs, leading to a…