Related papers: Observable Chiral Gravitational Waves from Inflati…
High-scale string inflationary models are in well-known tension with low-energy supersymmetry. A promising solution involves models where the inflaton is the volume of the extra dimensions so that the gravitino mass relaxes from large…
The generation of gravitational waves during inflation due to the non-linear coupling of scalar and tensor modes is discussed. Two methods describing gravitational wave perturbations are used and compared: a covariant and local approach, as…
An axion-like spectator during inflation can trigger a tachyonic instability which amplifies the modes of one of the helicities of the gauge field, resulting in the production of parity-violating gravitational waves (GWs). In this paper we…
We provide a detailed study of natural inflation with a periodic non-minimal coupling, which is a well-motivated inflationary model that admits an explicit UV completion. We demonstrate that this construction can satisfy the most recent…
We present an overview of inflationary models derived from string theory focusing mostly on closed string moduli as inflatons. After a detailed discussion of the eta-problem and different approaches to address it, we describe possible ways…
We present a novel mechanism for gravitational wave generation in the early Universe. Light spectator scalar fields during inflation can acquire a blue-tilted power spectrum due to stochastic effects. We show that this effect can lead to…
The scale of small-field inflation cannot be constrained via primordial gravitational waves through measurement of tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$. In this study, I show that if cosmic strings are produced after symmetry breaking at the end of…
We find successful models of D-brane/anti-brane inflation within a string context. We work within the GKP-KKLT class of type IIB string vacua for which many moduli are stabilized through fluxes, as recently modified to include `realistic'…
We discuss the possibility of a feature in the spectrum of inflationary gravitational waves sourced by a scalar field $\chi$ whose vacuum fluctuations are amplified by a rapidly time dependent mass. Unlike previous work which has focused on…
We investigate multi-field inflationary scenarios with fields that drop out of the model in a staggered fashion. This feature is natural in certain multi-field inflationary setups within string theory; for instance, it can manifest itself…
In this lecture I will review the present status of inflation within string-based brane-world scenarios. The idea is to start from a supersymmetric configuration with two parallel static Dp-branes, and slightly break the supersymmetry…
A generic feature of string compactifications is the presence of many scalar fields, called moduli. Moduli are usually displaced from their post-inflationary minimum during inflation. Their relaxation to the minimum could lead to the…
In low-energy effective string theory, $\alpha'$ corrections involve the coupling of the dilaton field to Gauss-Bonnet term. We assume that the dilaton potential is fine tuned so that the dilaton field may oscillate rapidly for a while…
We explore the possibility of obtaining inflation in weakly coupled heterotic string theory, where the model dependent axions are responsible for driving inflation. This model can be considered as a certain extrapolation of…
Current bounds from the polarization of the CMB predict the scale-invariant gravitational wave (GW) background of inflation to be out of reach for upcoming GW interferometers. This prospect dramatically changes if the inflaton is a…
We study the consistency of large-field inflation in low-energy effective field theories of string theory. In particular, we focus on the stability of K\"ahler moduli in the particularly interesting case where the non-perturbative…
Stochastic gravitational waves can be induced from the primordial curvature perturbations generated during inflation, through scalar-tensor mode coupling at the second order of cosmological perturbation theory. Here we discuss a model of…
An attractive candidate for the inflaton is an axion slowly rolling down a flat potential protected by a perturbative shift symmetry. Realisations of this idea within large field, natural and monomial inflation have been disfavoured by…
We calculate the production of the gravitational waves from a double inflation model with lattice simulations. Between the two inflationary stages, gravitational waves with a characteristic frequency are produced by fluctuations of the…
The behaviour of gravitational waves in the anomaly-induced inflationary phase is studied. The metric perturbations exhibit a stable behaviour, with a very moderate growth in the amplitude of the waves. The spectral indice is computed,…