Related papers: Why concave rather than convex inflaton potential?
Recently, the nonperturbative quantization scheme of loop quantum gravity has been extended to the Brans-Dicke theory and the corresponding loop quantum Brans-Dicke cosmology has been derived, which provides an essential platform to explore…
The characteristics of the cosmic microwave background provide circumstantial evidence that the hot radiation-dominated epoch in the early universe was preceded by a period of inflationary expansion. Here, we show how a measurement of the…
Working in the Large Volume Scenario (LVS) of IIB Calabi-Yau flux compactifications, we construct inflationary models from recently computed higher derivative $(\alpha')^3$-corrections. Inflation is driven by a Kaehler modulus whose…
Potentials in cosmological inflation often involve scalars with trans-Planckian ranges. As a result, towers of states become massless and their presence pushes the fundamental scale not to coincide with $M_{\rm P}$ but rather with the…
We discuss a dramatic difference between the description of the quantum creation of an open universe using the Hartle-Hawking wave function and the tunneling wave function. Recently Hawking and Turok have found that the Hartle-Hawking wave…
In the context of inflationary models with a pre-inflationary stage, in which the Einstein equations are obeyed, the weak energy condition is satisfied, and spacetime topology is trivial, we argue that homogeneity on super-Hubble scales…
We point out that the ability of some models of inflation, such as Higgs inflation and the universal attractor models, in reproducing the available data is due to their relation to the Starobinsky model of inflation. For large field values,…
In most inflationary models, space-time inflated to the extent that modes of cosmological size originated as modes of wavelengths at least several orders of magnitude smaller than the Planck length. Recent studies confirmed that, therefore,…
It is possible that the expansion of the universe began with an inflationary phase, in which the inflaton driving the process also was a Higgs field capable of stabilizing magnetic monopoles in a grand-unified gauge theory. If so, then the…
Cosmic inflation is arguably the most favoured paradigm of the very early Universe. It postulates an early phase of fast, nearly exponential, and accelerated expansion. Inflationary models are capable of explaining the overall flatness and…
We derive a general criterion that defines all single-field models leading to Starobinsky-like inflation and to universal predictions for the spectral index and tensor-to-scalar ratio, which are in agreement with Planck data. Out of all the…
We show that a new class of helical phase inflation models can be simply realized in minimal supergravity, wherein the inflaton is the phase component of a complex field and its potential admits a deformed helicoid structure. We find a new…
Open Inflation has recently been suggested as a possible way out of the age crisis caused by observations of a large rate of expansion of the universe, in conflict with the existence of very old globular clusters. It proposes that our local…
The Starobinsky model is one of the inflation models consistent with the result of CMB observation by the Planck satellite. We consider the dynamics of the Starobinsky inflation in the presence of another scalar field with a large…
Inflationary models, especially those with plateau-type potentials, are consistent with the cosmological data, but inflation itself does not resolve the initial singularity. This singularity is resolved, for example, by the idea of the…
We use the 3+1 formalism of numerical relativity to investigate the robustness of Starobinsky and Higgs inflation to inhomogeneous initial conditions, in the form of either field gradient or kinetic energy density. Sub-Hubble and…
The physical mechanism responsible for the emergence of primordial cosmic seeds from a perfect isotropic and homogeneous Universe has not been fully addressed in standard cosmic inflation. To handle this shortcoming, D. Sudarsky et al have…
Data on the cosmic microwave background (CMB) are discriminating between different models of inflation, disfavoring simple monomial potentials whilst being consistent with models whose predictions resemble those of the Starobinsky $R + R^2$…
In this paper we put forward the idea that the comoving Hubble horizon undergoes multiple stages of contraction (a.k.a. inflationary phase) and expansion. The observable inflation, that produces the CMB anisotropies and generates primordial…
We propose a new type of wavefunction for the universe computed from the Euclidean path integral, with asymptotically $AdS$ boundary conditions. In the semiclassical limit, it describes a Euclidean (half)-wormhole geometry, exhibiting a…