Related papers: V-mode Polarization in Axion Inflation and Preheat…
Recent investigations have shown that inflation can be driven by four-dimensional strongly interacting theories non-minimally coupled to gravity. We explore this paradigm further by considering composite inflation driven by orientifold…
We introduce a class of unified supersymmetric axion theories with unified and PQ symmetries broken by the same set of fields at a scale $\sim 2\times 10^{16}$ GeV. A typical domain wall number of order 30 leads to an axion decay constant…
This paper is based on a talk in which I discussed how a component of the dynamical affine connection, that is independent of the metric, can drive inflation in agreement with observations. This provides a geometrical origin for the…
The observed baryon asymmetry, as well as potentially an asymmetry in the dark matter sector, can be produced through dissipative particle production during inflation. A distinctive feature of this mechanism is the generation of matter…
We propose a natural inflation model driven by an imaginary or axionic component of a K\"ahler modulus in string-inspired supergravity. The shift symmetry of the axion is gauged under an anomalous $U(1)_X$ symmetry, which leads to a…
We study a new class of inflation model parametrized by the Hubble radius, such that $aH\propto \exp(-k\phi^n)$. These potentials are plateau-like, and reduce to the power-law potentials in the simplest case $n=2$. We investigate the range…
We study preheating via kinetic couplings after dilaton-axion $\alpha$-attractor inflation. We focus on E-model $\alpha$-attractor driven inflation where the inflaton is kinetically coupled to an ultralight axion. In this class of models,…
We show that supersymmetric axion models breaking the PQ symmetry by the interplay of non-renormalizable supersymmetric terms and soft supersymmetry breaking terms provide a natural framework not only for generating the axion scale from…
The two approaches to compute perturbations in warm inflation are examined. It is shown that both approaches lead to different expressions for the amplitude of the primordial spectrum, with a difference between them of $\Upsilon/(4H)$ at…
We introduce the real space correlation function of $B$-mode polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) as a probe of superhorizon tensor perturbations created by inflation. By causality, any non-inflationary mechanism for…
We explore the effect of initial conditions on the inflationary wavefunction and their consequences for the observed spectrum of primordial fluctuations. In a class of models with a sudden transition into inflation we find that, for a…
We study thermally induced density perturbations during inflation. This scenario is characterized by two thermodynamical conditions: (1) The primordial perturbations originate in the epoch when the inflationary universe contains a…
Axions play a central role in many realizations of large field models of inflation and in recent alternative mechanisms for generating primordial tensor modes in small field models. If these axions couple to gauge fields, the coupling…
We study the auto-correlation function of CMB polarization anisotropies and their cross correlation with temperature fluctuations as probe of the causal structure of the universe. Because polarization is generated at the last scattering…
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…
Motivated by a recent discussion about the role of flat directions, a typical feature of supersymmetric models, in the process of particle production in the early universe a consistent model of inflation and preheating in supergravity with…
We study a single field axion inflation model in the presence of an SU(2) gauge field with a small vev. In order to make the analysis as model-independent as possible, we consider an arbitrary potential for the axion that is able to support…
We draw attention to the possibility that inflation (i.e. accelerated expansion) might continue after the end of slow roll, during a period of fast oscillations of the inflaton field \phi . This phenomenon takes place when a mild…
We investigate axion-inflation baryogenesis models, embedded into U(1) gauge symmetric extensions of the Standard Model (SM), in which the new gauge field couples to the pseudo-scalar inflaton via the Chern-Simons coupling. The motion of…
We analyze in detail the perturbative decay of the inflaton oscillating about a generic form of its potential $V(\phi) = \phi^k$, taking into account the effects of non-instantaneous reheating. We show that evolution of the temperature as a…