Related papers: Natural Inflation from Polymer Quantization
Massive fields during inflation provide an interesting opportunity to test new physics at very high energy scales. Meanwhile in fundamental realizations, the inflationary field space typically has a curved geometry, which may leave…
We revisit two-field hybrid inflation as an effective field theory for low-scale inflation with sub-Planckian scalar field ranges. We focus on a prototype model by Stewart because it allows for a red spectral tilt, which still fits the…
I present the procedure for integrating out quantum fields whose mass M is well above the Hubble scale H in de Sitter space. The effective interaction and density matrix are explicitly computed for a simple example and are found to be of…
Inflation is a promising solution to many problems of the standard Big-Bang cosmology. Nevertheless, inflationary models have proved less compelling. In this chapter, we discuss why supersymmetry has led to more natural models of inflation.…
We study the effective dynamics of a polymer quantized scalar field living on an effective polymer quantized homogeneous and isotropic background. We use a presureless dust field as an internal clock, and work with volume variables. Our…
We consider toy cosmological models in which a classical, homogeneous, spinor field provides a dominant or sub-dominant contribution to the energy-momentum tensor of a flat Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universe. We find that, if such a field…
The probability of there being sufficient inflation to solve the fine-tuning associated with the horizon and flatness problems has recently been shown to be exponentially small, within the context of classical general relativity. Here this…
In this paper we investigate the inflationary dynamics of an $f(R)$ gravity in the presence of a canonical scalar field. We specifically choose the cosmological evolution to be a quasi-de Sitter evolution and also the $f(R)$ gravity is…
We consider spatially averaged inhomogeneous universe models and argue that, already in the absence of sources, an effective scalar field arises through foliating and spatially averaging inhomogeneous geometrical curvature invariants of the…
Cosmological perturbations generated during inflation exhibit striking quantum features, including entanglement and high circuit complexity. Yet their observational signatures remain effectively indistinguishable from classical stochastic…
We propose a general scenario for moduli stabilization where low-energy supersymmetry can be accommodated with a high scale of inflation. The key ingredient is that the stabilization of the modulus field during and after inflation is not…
We point out that the prediction of the minimal chaotic inflation model is altered if a scalar field takes a large field value close to the Planck scale during inflation due to a negative Hubble induced mass. In particular, we show that the…
A new shifted hybrid inflationary scenario is introduced which, in contrast to the older one, relies only on renormalizable superpotential terms. This scenario is automatically realized in a concrete extension of the "minimal"…
The effects of a scalar field, known as the "assistant field," which nonminimally couples to gravity, on single-field inflationary models are studied. The analysis provides analytical expressions for inflationary observables such as the…
In loop quantum cosmology, the universe avoids a big bang singularity and undergoes an early and short super-inflation phase. During super-inflation, non-perturbative quantum corrections to the dynamics drive an inflaton field up its…
Previously defined covariant and gauge-invariant perturbation variables, representing, e.g., the fractional spatial energy density gradient on hypersurfaces of constant expansion, are used to simplify the linear perturbation analysis of a…
We here explore a specific class of scalar field, dubbed quasi-quintessence which exhibits characteristics akin to ordinary matter. Specifically, we investigate under which conditions this fluid can mitigate the classical cosmological…
The dynamics of hybrid models is usually approximated by the evolution of a scalar field slowly rolling along a nearly flat valley. Inflation ends with a waterfall phase, due to a tachyonic instability. This final phase is usually assumed…
Most high-energy constructions that realise a phase of cosmic inflation contain many degrees of freedom. Yet, cosmological observations are all consistent with single-field embeddings. We show how volume selection effects explain this…
Inflation in the early Universe is one of the most promising probes of gravity in the high-energy regime. However, observable scales give access to a limited window in the inflationary dynamics. In this essay, we argue that quantum…