Related papers: No-Go theorems for ekpyrosis from ten-dimensional …
Recently it was found that a broad class of existing inflationary models based on supergravity can be significantly simplified if some of the standard, unconstrained chiral superfields are replaced by nilpotent superfields, associated with…
We analyse warping corrections to the scalar potential in flux compactifications of Type IIB string theory, focusing on their effect on $F$-term de Sitter uplifting in Calabi-Yau orientifold models. A systematic inverse-volume expansion…
In the ekpyrotic scenario the Universe is initially collapsing, the energy density coming from a scalar field with a negative exponential potential. On the basis of a calculation ignoring the gravitational back-reaction the authors of the…
Motivated by the recent `Higgs-inflation' scenario based on a single inflaton field, we consider more generic two-field inflation with non-minimal coupling term. The generic analytic expressions are derived for cosmological observables with…
We study the dynamics of the size of an extra-dimensional manifold stabilised by fluxes. Inspecting the potential for the 4D field associated with this size (the radion), we obtain the conditions under which it can be stabilised and show…
We study compactifications of Einstein gravity on product spaces in vacuum and their acceleration phases. Scalar potentials for the dimensionally reduced effective theory are found to be of exponential form and exact solutions are obtained…
Certain features in the primordial scalar power spectrum are known to improve the fit to the cosmological data. We examine whether bouncing scenarios can remain viable if future data confirm the presence of such features. In inflation, the…
It is well known that large Hubble-induced supergravity corrections to the inflaton field can ruin the flatness of the potential, thus creating a tension between slow-roll inflation and supergravity. In this paper we show that it is…
We study inflation driven by a slow-rolling inflaton field, characterised by a quadratic potential, and incorporating radiative corrections within the context of supergravity. In this model the energy scale of inflation is not overly…
We put to test the recently proposed non-linear flux ansatz for maximal supergravity in eleven dimensions, which gives the seven-dimensional flux in terms of the scalars and pseudoscalars of maximal N=8 supergravity, by considering a number…
We introduce a new class of models of chaotic inflation inspired by the superconformal approach to supergravity. This class of models allows a functional freedom of choice of the inflaton potential V = |f(\phi)|^2. The simplest model of…
We study multidimensional gravitational models with scalar curvature nonlinearity of the type 1/R and with form-fields (fluxes) as a matter source. It is assumed that the higher dimensional space-time undergoes Freund-Rubin-like spontaneous…
We investigate compactifications with duality twists and their relation to orbifolds and compactifications with fluxes. Inequivalent compactifications are classified by conjugacy classes of the U-duality group and result in gauged…
I will discuss the development of inflationary theory and its present status, as well as some recent attempts to suggest an alternative to inflation. In particular, I will argue that the ekpyrotic scenario in its original form does not…
We explore compactifications of the form of three tori with a general genus and one circle in the framework of 11D supergravity. By imposing suitable gauge conditions and boundary conditions, we find that the FRW universe with four extended…
We analyse geometric type IIA flux compactifications leading to N=4 gauged supergravities in four dimensions. The complete landscape of isotropic vacua is presented, which turns out to belong to a unique theory. The solutions admit an…
We derive slow-roll conditions for a scalar field which is non-minimally coupled with gravity in a consistent manner and express spectral indices of scalar/tensor perturbations in terms of the slow-roll parameters. The conformal invariance…
We consider chaotic inflation models with a pseudo-scalar field containing the general couplings to the four-form flux. The four-form mixing with the pseudo-scalar field induces a quadratic potential for inflaton while the coexisting…
We use a geometric approach to construct a flux formulation for the SL(5) U-duality manifest exceptional field theory. The resulting formalism is well-suited for studying gauged supergravities with geometric and non-geometric fluxes. Here…
The magnitude of B-mode polarization in the cosmic microwave background as measured by BICEP2 favours models of chaotic inflation with a quadratic $m^2 \phi^2/2$ potential, whereas data from the Planck satellite favour a small value of the…