Related papers: Probing the inflationary particle content: extra s…
Despite the fact that experimentally with a high degree of statistical significance only a single Standard Model--like Higgs boson is discovered at the LHC, extended Higgs sectors with multiple scalar fields not excluded by combined fits of…
Antisymmetric tensor field (two-form field) is a ubiquitous component in string theory and generally couples to the scalar sector through its kinetic term. In this paper, we propose a cosmological scenario that the particle production of…
Scalar fields provide attractive modifications of pre-BBN cosmology, which have interesting implications for dark matter abundances. We analyse the effect of these modifications on the number of e-foldings between horizon exit of CMB modes…
We discuss metric perturbations produced during a period of inflation in the early universe where two scalar fields evolve. The final scalar perturbation spectrum can be calculated in terms of the perturbed expansion along neighbouring…
If the beginning of inflation is defined at the moment when the vacuum energy of the inflaton starts to dominate, the energy density of the other fields at that moment is (by definition) comparable to the inflaton. Although the fraction…
A double hybrid inflationary scenario in non-minimal supergravity which can predict values of the tensor-to-scalar ratio up to about 0.05 is presented. Larger values of this ratio would require unacceptably large running of the scalar…
We analyze the signatures of inflationary models that are coupled to strongly interacting field theories, a basic class of multifield models also motivated by their role in providing dynamically small scales. Near the squeezed limit of the…
In scalar-tensor theories the scalar fields generically couple nontrivially to gravity. We study the observable properties of inflationary models with non-minimally coupled inflaton and Dirac-Born-Infeld (DBI) kinetic term. Within the…
For a robust interpretation of upcoming observations from PLANCK and LHC experiments it is imperative to understand how the inflationary dynamics of a non-minimally coupled Higgs scalar field with gravity may affect the determination of the…
We explore the consequences of the existence of a very large number of light scalar degrees of freedom in the early universe. We distinguish between participator and spectator fields. The former have a small mass, and can contribute to the…
It is showed by a conformal rescaling that the inflationary background can be dual to a slowly expanding background, which is almost Minkowski and described by a conformal field theory conformally coupled to gravity. It is proved that the…
Recently, BICEP2 measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) $B$-mode polarization at degree angular scales has indicated the presence of tensor modes with a high tensor-to-scalar ratio of $r=0.2$ when assuming nearly…
Inflation in cosmology is a specific stage preceding the Big Bang, aimed at solving both old background problems and new perturbation issues. Single-field inflation is a candidate to illustrate the picture of the initial universe, and…
We explain why it is so difficult and perhaps even impossible to increase the cosmological tensor-to-scalar perturbation ratio during the post-inflationary evolution of the universe. Nevertheless, contrary to some recent claims, tensor…
We consider an analogue de Sitter cosmos in an expanding quasi-two-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensate with dominant dipole-dipole interactions between the atoms or molecules in the ultracold gas. It is demonstrated that a hallmark…
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…
Inflationary models within string theory exhibit unusual scalar field dynamics involving non-minimal kinetic terms and generically referred to as k-inflation. In this situation, the standard slow-roll approach used to determine the behavior…
Primordial SU(2) gauge fields with an isotropic background lead to the production of spin-2 particles during inflation. We provide a unified formalism to compute this effect in all of the inflation models with isotropic SU(2) gauge fields…
The recent BICEP2 B-mode polarization determination of an inflationary tensor-scalar ratio $r=0.2^{+0.07}_{-0.05}$ is in tension with simple scale-free models of inflation due to a lack of a corresponding low multipole excess in the…
Distortions of the Cosmic Microwave Background energy spectrum of the $\mu$ type are sensitive to the primordial power spectrum through the dissipation of curvature perturbations on scales $k\simeq 50$ - $10^4\,\mathrm{Mpc}^{-1}$. Their…