Related papers: Extended Inflation - a quantum cosmological survey
Since the standard inflationary paradigm is based on quantum field theory on classical space-times, it excludes the Planck era. Using techniques from loop quantum gravity, the paradigm is extended to a self-consistent theory from the Planck…
We consider cosmological inflation generated by a scalar field slowly rolling off from a de Sitter maximum of its potential. The models belong to the class of hilltop models and represent the most general model of this kind in which the…
A cosmological model of homogeneous and isotropic spatially flat Universe with gravitating self-interacting scalar field is considered. The exact solution, admitting an analytical exit from inflationary stage into a radiation era and a…
We review recent progress in the understanding of the preheating stage of Higgs inflation formulated within the Einstein-Cartan framework of gravity. This setup smoothly interpolates between the metric and Palatini formulations of the…
Recently Peebles and Vilenkin proposed and quantitatively analyzed the fascinating idea that a substantial fraction of the present cosmic energy density could reside in the vacuum potential energy of the scalar field responsible for…
Nonlinear electrodynamics with two dimensional parameters is studied. The range of electromagnetic fields when principles of causality, unitarity and the classical stability hold, are obtained. A singularity of the electric field at the…
The trace-free version of the Einstein Gravitational equations, essentially equivalent to unimodular gravity, can solve the troubling issue of the huge discrepancy between quantum field theory estimates of the vacuum energy density and the…
I summarize the arguments that strongly suggest that our universe is the product of inflation. The mechanisms that lead to eternal inflation in both new and chaotic models are described. Although the infinity of pocket universes produced by…
We construct analytic and numerical solutions of the Fokker-Planck equation that arises in the context of stochastic inflation. We use these solutions to derive necessary conditions for eternal inflation on the higher derivatives of the…
Quantization implies independent degrees of freedom that do not appear in the classical theory, given by fluctuations, correlations, and higher moments of a state. A systematic derivation of the resulting dynamical systems is presented here…
Quantum effects play an essential role in modern cosmology. Perhaps the most striking example comes from large-scale structures, generally assumed to originate from vacuum quantum fluctuations and stretched by an expansion phase. Inflation…
We find a solution for exponential inflation in a Brans-Dicke generalized model, where the coupling "constant " is variable. While in General Relativity the equation of state is p is equal to minus rho, here we find p proportional to rho,…
Motivated by brane cosmology we solve the Einstein equations with a time dependent cosmological constant. Assuming that at an early epoch the vacuum energy scales as $1/logt $, we show that the universe passes from a fast growing phase…
The possibility of having an inflationary epoch within a noncommutative geometry approach to unifying gravity and the standard model is demonstrated. This inflationary phase occurs without the need to introduce "ad hoc" additional fields or…
We propose a realization of cosmic inflation with the Higgs field when the Higgs potential has degenerate vacua by employing the recently proposed idea of hillclimbing inflation. The resultant inflationary predictions exhibit a sizable…
The shortcomings of the Standard Big Bang Cosmological Model as well as their resolution in the context of inflationary cosmology are discussed. The inflationary scenario and the subsequent oscillation and decay of the inflaton field are…
The big bang model and the history of the early universe according to the grand unified theories are introduced. The shortcomings of big bang are discussed together with their resolution by inflationary cosmology. Inflation, the subsequent…
Inflation may have been driven by a component which violated the Null-Energy Condition, thereby leading to {\it super inflation}. We provide the formalism to study cosmological perturbations when such a component is described by a scalar…
Eternal inflation is a seemingly generic consequence of theories that give rise to accelerated expansion of the universe and possess multiple vacuum states. Making predictions in an eternally inflating universe is notoriously difficult…
The interior geometry of static, spherically symmetric black holes of the Einstein-Yang-Mills-Higgs theory is analyzed. It is found that in contrast to the Abelian case generically no inner (Cauchy) horizon is formed inside non-Abelian…