Related papers: Axion Landscape Cosmology
The observed values of the cosmological constant {\it and} the abundance of Dark Matter (DM) can be successfully understood, using certain measures, by imposing the anthropic requirement that density perturbations go non-linear and…
We use the phase plane analysis technique of Madsen and Ellis to consider a universe with a true cosmological constant as well as a cosmological "constant" that is decaying. Time symmetric dynamics for the inflationary era allows eternally…
Axion fluctuations generated during inflation lead to isocurvature and non-Gaussian temperature fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background radiation. Following a previous analysis for the model independent string axion we consider the…
At very early times, the universe was not in a vacuum state. Under the assumtion that the deviation from equillibrium was large, in particular that it is higher than the scale of inflation, we analyse the conditions for local transitions…
I describe how the QCD vacuum structure, necessary to resolve the $U(1)_A$ problem, predicts the presence of a P, T and CP violating term proportional to the vacuum angle $\bar{\theta}$. To agree with experimental bounds, however, this…
We present a scenario where an axion-like field drives inflation until a potential barrier, which keeps a waterfall field at the origin, disappears and a waterfall transition occurs. Such a barrier separates the scale of inflation from that…
This talk focuses on the role of light scalars in cosmology, both Nambu Goldstone bosons and pseudo moduli. The former include QCD axions, which might constitute the dark matter, and more general axions, which, under certain conditions,…
Under the hypothesis that the cosmological constant vanishes in the true ground state with lowest possible energy density, we argue that the observed small but finite vacuum-like energy density can be explained if we consider a theory with…
Group field theory has shown to be a promising framework to derive cosmological predictions from full quantum gravity. In this brief note, we revisit the background dynamics when interaction terms are taken into account and conclude that,…
The nature of the cosmological dark matter remains elusive. Recent studies have advocated the possibility that dark matter could be composed of ultra-light, self-interacting bosons, forming a Bose-Einstein condensate in the very early…
A cosmology is considered driven by a stress-energy tensor consisting of a perfect fluid, an inhomogeneous pressure term (which we call a ``tachyonic dust'' for reasons which will become apparent) and a cosmological constant. The…
If inflation scale is high, light scalars acquire large quantum fluctuations during inflation.If sufficiently long-lived, they will give rise to CDM isocurvature perturbations, which are highly constrained by the Planck data. Focusing on…
Axions are likely to be the Dark Matter (DM) that cosmological data require. They arise in the Peccei Quinn solution of the strong CP problem. In a previous work we showed that their model has a simple and natural generalization which…
It is known for some time that the cosmological bound on the invisible axion scale can be avoided by an early phase of strong QCD. While most approaches rely on theories where the strong coupling constant is determined through the…
The coupling between scalar and vector fields has a long and interesting history. Axions are one key possibility to solve the strong CP problem and axion-like particles could be one solution to the dark matter puzzle. Given the nature of…
Axio-dilaton models are among the simplest scalar-tensor theories that contain the two-derivative interactions that naturally compete at low energies with the two-derivative inter-actions of General Relativity. Such models are…
A unified description of inflation, dark energy, and dark matter is presented within a two-scalar-field cosmological model. Inflation, assumed to be of the warm type, is driven by one of the scalar fields, which, shortly after the end of…
The axion solution of the strong CP problem provides a number of possible windows to physics beyond the standard model, notably in the form of searches for solar axions and for galactic axion dark matter, but in a broader context also…
We explore a novel cosmological model based on coupled fields in the framework of scalar tensor theories, considering the specific interplay between gravity and scalar fields. The model further extends a recent axion-dilaton system by…
We show how a mass term for gravitational axions (''gravi-axions'') with a Chern-Simons coupling to gravity can naturally arise due to non-perturbative contributions from Euclidean wormholes, breaking the continuous shift symmetry of the…