Related papers: V-mode Polarization in Axion Inflation and Preheat…
Coherent oscillations of the inflaton field at the end of inflation can parametrically excite fermions in much the same way that bosons are created in preheating. Although Pauli-blocking prohibits the occupation number of created fermions…
We examine the possibility of positive spectral index of the power spectrum of the primordial tensor perturbation produced during inflation in the light of the detection of the B-mode polarization by the BICEP2 collaboration. We find a blue…
We show that an axionlike field coupled to a new confining gauge group can generate the primordial density perturbation in the post-inflation universe. The axion decay constant and strong coupling scale are uniquely determined by…
In models of natural inflation, the inflaton is an axion-like particle. Unfortunately, axion potentials in UV-complete theories appear to be too steep to drive inflation. We show that, even for a steep potential, natural inflation can occur…
We investigate the possibility that a chiral asymmetry during inflation can manifest as net circular polarization in photons. Using an example known to produce a helicity imbalance in fermions, we show that superhorizon photon modes…
A safe way to reheat the universe, in models of natural and quadratic inflation, is through shift symmetric couplings between the inflaton $\phi$ and the Standard Model (SM), since they do not generate loop corrections to the potential…
Recent B-mode polarization observation seems to imply the tensor tilt $n_T\gtrsim 1$ at large angular scale, if the primordial signal is dominated. We show that for a primordial universe, which is in a slowly expanding genesis phase before…
Supersolid inflation is a class of inflationary theories that simultaneously breaks time and space reparameterization invariance during inflation, with distinctive features for the dynamics of cosmological fluctuations. We investigate…
We study de spectrum of primordial fluctuations and the scale dependence of the inflaton spectral index due to self-interactions of the field. We compute the spectrum of fluctuations by applying nonequilibrium renormalization group…
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…
We propose the first model of warm inflation in which the particle production emerges directly from coupling the inflaton to Standard Model particles. Warm inflation, an early epoch of sustained accelerated expansion at finite temperature,…
During inflationary preheating, the energy stored in the inflaton field is rapidly converted into excitations of other entropy fields. This stage is characterized by exponential particle production due to parametric resonance and is…
The four-point correlation function of primordial scalar perturbations has parity-even and parity-odd contributions and the parity-odd signal in cosmological observations is opening a novel window to look for new physics in the inflationary…
We analyze the dynamics of inflationary models with a coupling of the inflaton $\phi$ to gauge fields of the form $\phi F \tilde{F}/f$, as in the case of axions. It is known that this leads to an instability, with exponential amplification…
We present a toy model of an axion gauge field inflation scenario that yields viable density and gravitational wave spectra. The scenario consists of an axionic inflaton in a steep potential that is effectively flattened by a coupling to a…
At finite temperature, the coupling of an axion to non-Abelian gauge fields causes dissipation due to sphaleron heating. This mechanism has been considered as ideal for realizing warm inflation since it can lead to large thermal friction…
We study the dynamics of axion-like fields in F-theory and suggest that they can serve as inflatons in models of natural inflation. The axions arise from harmonic three-forms on the F-theory compactification space and parameterize a complex…
The axion is a well-motivated candidate for the inflaton, as the radiative corrections that spoil many single-field models are avoided by virtue of its shift symmetry. However, axions generically couple to gauge sectors. As the axion…
We study chromo-natural inflation in the axiverse. More precisely, we investigate natural inflation with two axions coupled with a SU(2) gauge field. Assuming a hierarchy between the coupling constants, we find that for certain initial…
Axion inflation models coupled to a gauge sector via a Chern-Simons term exhibit an array of interesting phenomenology including a chiral gravitational wave spectrum and primordial black hole production. They may also provide a useful…