Related papers: Oscillons from Pure Natural Inflation
We investigate the emergence of large, localized, pseudo-stable configurations (oscillons) from inflaton fragmentation at the end of inflation. We predict the number density of large oscillons, and the conditions necessary for their…
Oscillons are massive, long-lived, localized excitations of a scalar field. We show that in a large class of well-motivated single-field models, inflation is followed by self-resonance, leading to copious oscillon generation and a lengthy…
In the so-called natural inflation, an axion-like inflaton is assumed to have a cosine-type periodic potential. This is not the case in a very simple model in which the axion-like inflaton is coupled to an SU(N) (or other) pure Yang-Mills,…
In the ``natural inflation'' model, the inflaton potential is periodic. We show that Planck scale physics may induce corrections to the inflaton potential, which is also periodic with a greater frequency. Such high frequency corrections…
We investigate the possibility of oscillon formation during the preheating phase of asymmetric inflationary potentials. We analytically establish the existence of oscillon-like solutions for the Klein-Gordon equation for a polynomial…
In models of natural inflation, the inflaton is an axion-like particle. Unfortunately, axion potentials in UV-complete theories appear to be too steep to drive inflation. We show that, even for a steep potential, natural inflation can occur…
Under certain conditions, the oscillating inflaton condensate filling the Universe after inflation can fragment and form so-called oscillons. These long-lived soliton-like field configurations can dominate the Universe for several $e$-folds…
We investigate the formation and decay of oscillons during the post-inflationary reheating epoch from inflaton oscillations around asymptotically flat potentials $V(\varphi)$ in the presence of an external coupling of the form…
Multiple axions form a landscape in the presence of various shift symmetry breaking terms. Eternal inflation populates the axion landscape, continuously creating new universes by bubble nucleation. Slow-roll inflation takes place after the…
We study the dynamics of axion-like fields in F-theory and suggest that they can serve as inflatons in models of natural inflation. The axions arise from harmonic three-forms on the F-theory compactification space and parameterize a complex…
The dynamics at the end of inflation can generate an asymmetry between particles and anti-particles of the inflaton field. This asymmetry can be transferred to baryons via decays, generating a baryon asymmetry in our Universe. We explore…
We study tensor modes in pure natural inflation (arXiv:1706.08522), a recently-proposed inflationary model in which an axionic inflaton couples to pure Yang-Mills gauge fields. We find that the tensor-to-scalar ratio r is naturally bounded…
We study the non-perturbative evolution of inflationary fluctuations during preheating using fully non-linear general-relativistic field-theory simulations. We choose a single-field inflationary model that is consistent with observational…
We propose a new class of natural inflation models based on a hidden scale invariance. In a very generic Wilsonian effective field theory with an arbitrary number of scalar fields, which exhibits scale invariance via the dilaton, the…
Analytical arguments suggest that a large class of scalar field potentials permit the existence of oscillons -- pseudo-stable, non-topological solitons -- in three spatial dimensions. In this paper we numerically explore oscillon solutions…
We propose a mechanism by which the inflaton can generate baryogenesis, by taking the inflaton to be a complex scalar field with a weakly broken global symmetry and present a new version of the Affleck-Dine mechanism. The smallness of the…
We point out that a simple inflationary model in which the axionic inflaton couples to a pure Yang-Mills theory may give the scalar spectral index (n_s) and tensor-to-scalar ratio (r) in complete agreement with the current observational…
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 propose a novel scenario of inflation, in which the inflaton is identified as the lightest mode of an angular field in a compactified fifth dimension. The periodic effective potential exhibits exponentially flat plateaus, so that a…
The inflationary paradigm has enjoyed phenomenological success, however, a compelling particle physics realization is still lacking. The key obstruction is that the requirement of a suitably flat scalar potential is sensitive to…