Related papers: Axion Inflation and Affleck-Dine Baryogenesis
I argue that string creation may have played a role in reheating the universe after inflation. For strings in four dimensions that arise from branes wrapping cycles in the extra dimensions, estimates from effective field theory show that…
Models of inflation based on axions, which owe their popularity to the robustness against UV corrections, have also a very distinct class of signatures. The relevant interactions of the axion are a non-perturbative oscillating contribution…
We propose a scenario for realizing super-Planckian axion decay constants in Calabi-Yau orientifolds of type IIB string theory, leading to large-field inflation. Our construction is a simple embedding in string theory of the mechanism of…
In this letter we explore the possibility of creating the baryon asymmetry of the universe during inflation and reheating due to the decay of a field associated with the inflaton. CP violation is attained by assuming that this field is…
The inflationary scenarios suggested by the duality properties of string cosmology in the Brans-Dicke (or String) frame are shown to correspond to accelerated contraction (deflation) when Weyl-transformed to the Einstein frame. We point out…
The original model of axion natural inflation produces a tensor-to-scalar ratio above the experimental limit. Aligned axion inflation admits inflationary trajectories that originate near a saddle point of the two-field potential, and…
We explore the possibility of obtaining inflation in weakly coupled heterotic string theory, where the model dependent axions are responsible for driving inflation. This model can be considered as a certain extrapolation of…
In the context of inflationary cosmology, we discuss a minimal baryogenesis scenario in which the resulting baryon to entropy ratio is determined by the amplitude of the anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background. The model involves a…
Thermal inflation was proposed as a mechanism to dilute the density of cosmological moduli. Thermal inflation is driven by a complex scalar field possessing a large vacuum expectation value and a very flat potential, called a `flaton'. Such…
Understanding axion cosmology has important experimental consequences since it constrains the range of allowed values for the axion mass. In the standard thermal scenario, which assumes Peccei-Quinn symmetry restoration after inflation, an…
String theory gives rise to various mechanisms to generate primordial inflation, of which ``brane inflation'' is one of the most widely considered. In this scenario, inflation takes place while two branes are approaching each other, and the…
Axions have for some time been considered a plausible candidate for dark matter. They can be produced through misalignment, but it has been argued that when inflation occurs before a Peccei-Quinn transition, appreciable production can…
A class of non-supersymmetric string backgrounds can be constructed using twists that involve space-time fermion parity. We propose a non-perturbative definition of string theory in these backgrounds via gauge theories with supersymmetry…
In this letter, we quantify the challenge of explaining the baryon asymmetry using initial conditions in a universe that undergoes inflation. Contrary to lore, we find that such an explanation is possible if net $B-L$ number is stored in a…
A scenario for the generation of the baryon asymmetry in the early Universe is proposed in which cosmic string loops, predicted by theories where the baryon and/or lepton numbers are gauged symmetries, collapse during the friction dominated…
We consider cosmological consequences of string theory tachyon condensation. We show that it is very difficult to obtain inflation in the simplest versions of this theory. Typically, inflation in these theories could occur only at…
Quantum fluctuations in the post inflationary Affleck-Dine baryogenesis model are studied. The squeezed states formalism is used to give evolution equations for the particle and anti-particle modes in the early universe. The role of…
The preheating after the inflation, which can be interpreted as particle creation in the oscillating inflaton background, provides a state far from thermal equilibrium. We extend the field theoretical treatment of the preheating by Linde et…
We reanalyze brane inflation with brane-brane interactions at an angle, which include the special case of brane-anti-brane interaction. If nature is described by a stringy realization of the brane world scenario today (with arbitrary…
I review some aspects of obtaining inflation from string theory, in particular brane-antibrane inflation within the framework of KKLMMT, and racetrack inflation. Further, I discuss recent work on the problem of reheating after…