Related papers: Tunnelling in Dante's Inferno
We consider a multi-field open inflation model, in which one of the fields dominates quantum tunneling from a false vacuum while the other field governs slow-roll inflation within the bubble nucleated from false vacuum decay. We call the…
We propose a method to extract predictions from quantum cosmology for inflation that can be confronted with observations. Employing the tunneling boundary condition in quantum geometrodynamics, we derive a probability distribution for the…
We extend to multidimensional cosmology Vilenkin's prescription of tunnelling from nothing for the quantum origin of the observable Universe. Our model consists of a $D+4$-dimensional spacetime of topology ${\cal R}\times {\cal S}^3…
The Hubble constant during the last stages of inflation in a broad class of models based on the KKLT mechanism should be smaller than the gravitino mass, H <~ m_{3/2}. We point out that in the models with large volume of compactification…
Phantom Cosmology provides an unique opportunity to "connect" the phantom driven (low en- ergy meV scale) dark energy phase to the (high energy GUT scale) inflationary era. This is possible because the energy density increases in phantom…
We investigate the quantum cosmological tunneling scenario for inflationary models. Within a path-integral approach, we derive the corresponding tunneling probability distribution. A sharp peak in this distribution can be interpreted as the…
We study the details of eternal inflation in the presence of a spectator Higgs field within the framework of the minimal Standard Model. We have recently shown that in the presence of scalar field(s) which allow inflation only within a…
Open inflation scenario is attracting a renewed interest in the context of string landscape. Since there are a large number of metastable de Sitter vacua in string landscape, tunneling transitions to lower metastable vacua through the…
If the inflationary phase lasted longer than the minimal period, the length scales observed today originate from modes that were smaller than the Planck length during inflation. It was recently argued that this "trans-Planckian problem" can…
If the inflationary era is preceded by a radiation dominated era in which the inflaton too was in thermal equilibrium at some very early time then the CMB data places an upper bound on the comoving temperature of the (decoupled) inflaton…
According to the standard lore, a prolonged inflation leaves a quantum field theory in a cold, low entropy state. Thus, some mechanism is needed to reheat this post-inflationary state, leaving a hot, thermal, radiation-dominated Universe.…
The abundance of the QCD axion is known to be suppressed if the Hubble parameter during inflation, $H_{\rm inf}$, is lower than the QCD scale, and if the inflation lasts sufficiently long. We show that the tight upper bound on the inflation…
The recently proposed trans-Planckian censorship conjecture (TCC) amounts to the claim that inflation models with an inflationary energy scale larger than Lambda_inf^max ~ 10^9 GeV belong to the swampland, i.e., cannot be embedded into a…
Quantum gravity computations suggest the existence of an ultraviolet and an infrared fixed point where quantum scale invariance emerges as an exact symmetry. We discuss a particular variable gravity model for the crossover between these…
Quantum tunneling in Reissner-Nordstrom geometry is studied and the tunneling rate is determined. A possible scenario for cosmic inflation, followed by reheating phases and subsequent radiation-domination expansion, is proposed.
Although the paradigm of inflation has been extensively studied to demonstrate how macroscopic inhomogeneities in our universe originate from quantum fluctuations, most of the established literature ignores the crucial role that…
We present arguments to the effect that time and temperature can be viewed as a form of quantum entanglement. Furthermore, if temperature is thought of as arising from the quantum mechanical tunneling probability this then offers us a way…
In generic models of cosmological inflation, quantum fluctuations strongly influence the spacetime metric and produce infinitely many regions where the end of inflation (reheating) is delayed until arbitrarily late times. The geometry of…
We consider two toy models of open inflation and investigate their ability to give a suppression of scalar power on large scales whilst also satisfying observational constraints on the spatial curvature of the universe. Qualitatively we…
We investigate the validity of effective field theory methods and the decoupling of heavy fields during inflation. Considering models of inflation in which the inflaton is coupled to a heavy (super-Hubble) degree of freedom initially in its…