Related papers: Thermalized Axion Inflation
We investigate the feasibility of models of inflation with a large Gauss-Bonnet coupling at late times, which have been shown to modify and prevent the end of inflation. Despite the potential of Gauss-Bonnet models in predicting favourable…
In this paper, we study the dynamics of the Chern-Simons Inflation Model proposed by Alexander, Marciano and Spergel. According to this model, inflation begins when a fermion current interacts with a turbulent gauge field in a space larger…
We study gravitational wave production from gauge preheating in a variety of inflationary models, detailing its dependence on both the energy scale and the shape of the potential. We show that preheating into Abelian gauge fields…
We investigate inflation within $f(R,\phi)$-theories, where a dynamical scalar field is coupled to gravity. A class of models which can support early-time acceleration with the emerging of an effective cosmological constant at high…
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 investigate the Lyth relationship between the tensor-scalar ratio, r, and the variation of the inflaton field, Delta phi, over the course of inflation. For inflationary models that produce at least 55 e-folds of inflation, there is a…
The evolution of the gauge coupling is modelled using a scalar degree of freedom whose homogeneous and inhomogeneous modes evolve from an ordinary inflationary phase to the subsequent epochs. Depending upon various parameters (scalar mass,…
A new mechanism is presented which can reheat the Universe in non-oscillatory models of inflation, where the inflation period is followed by a period dominated by the kinetic density for the inflaton field (kination). The mechanism…
Evidence from the BICEP2 experiment for a significant gravitational-wave background has focussed attention on inflaton potentials $V(\phi) \propto \phi^\alpha$ with $\alpha=2$ ("chaotic" or "$m^2\phi^2$" inflation) or with smaller values of…
We present a comprehensive study of warm hybrid inflation within the framework of $\alpha$-attractor models, where an axionic inflaton is coupled to a waterfall field in the presence of thermal dissipation. The model is analyzed for both…
From a model-building perspective, the inflationary sector might very well have no direct couplings to other species, apart from inevitable gravitational interactions. Within the context of General Relativity, a thermal universe can still…
If the inflaton is a heavy scalar field, it may equilibrate slower than some other degrees of freedom, e.g. non-Abelian gauge bosons. In this case, perturbations in the inflaton field and in a thermal plasma coexist from a given moment…
We study the possibility that the approximate time shift symmetry during inflation is promoted to the full invariance under time reparametrization t \to \tilde t(t), or equivalently under field redefinition of the inflaton \phi \to…
We study scalar-tensor-tensor and tensor-scalar-scalar three point cross correlations generated by the dynamics of a transiently rolling spectator axion-$\mathrm U(1)$ gauge field model during inflation. In this framework, tensor and scalar…
We analyze the energy density fluctuations contributed by scalar fields $\Phi$ with vanishing expectation values, $\langle\Phi\rangle=0$, which are present in addition to the inflaton field. For simplicity we take $\Phi$ to be…
An axion-like inflaton coupled to non-Abelian gauge bosons provides a compelling microphysical framework for warm inflation. Starting even from cold initial conditions, in these systems, sphaleron heating may generate thermal friction…
It is shown, using quantum field theory in curved spacetime, how the expansion of the universe during inflation produces an aggregate of particles and inflaton vacuum fluctuations at a temperature of 5x10^17GeV and dense enough to make…
The Standard Model Higgs boson, which has previously been shown to develop an effective vacuum expectation value during inflation, can give rise to large particle masses during inflation and reheating, leading to temporary blocking of the…
We investigate models in which inflation is driven by an ultraviolet safe and interacting scalar sector stemming from a new class of nonsupersymmetric gauge field theories. These new theories, differently from generic scalar models, are…
We investigate the phenomenology of warm inflation and present generic results about the evolution of the inflaton and radiation fields. The general conditions required for warm inflation to take place are derived and discussed. A…