Related papers: Towards geometric inflation: the cubic case
We propose a new class of inflationary solutions to the standard cosmological problems (horizon, flatness, monopole,...), based on a modification of old inflation. These models do not require a potential which satisfies the normal…
Detailed analyses of the WMAP data indicate possible oscillatory features in the primordial curvature perturbation, which moreover appears to be suppressed beyond the present Hubble radius. Such deviations from the usual inflationary…
Without demanding a specific form for the inflaton potential, we obtain an estimate of the contribution to the curvature perturbation generated during the linear era of the hybrid inflation waterfall. The spectrum of this contribution peaks…
The standard big bang cosmology has been greatly successful in explaining many observational aspects of the real universe. However, two particular diffficulties faced by it are the so-called ``horizon'' and ``flatness'' problems. By…
We present uniform rate inflation in a modified $f(T, \mathcal{T}) $ gravity. It is found that early inflation can be realized even with a scalar field field with a quadratic potential and a negative cosmological constant. We construct…
The quantum contributions to the gravitational action are relatively easy to calculate in the higher derivative sector of the theory. However, the applications to the post-inflationary cosmology and astrophysics require the corrections to…
Spacetime with general linear vector distortion is introduced. Thus, the torsion and the nonmetricity of the affine connection are assumed to be proportional to a vector field (and not its derivatives). The resulting two-parameter family of…
When describing gravity at high energies it is natural to introduce terms quadratic in the curvature as first corrections to the Einstein-Hilbert action. Static, spherically symmetric classical solutions are studied in the case of the…
We prove that in the Hartle-Hawking approach to quantum cosmology the existence of an inflationary phase is a general property of minisuperspace models given by a closed Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universe containing a massless scalar field…
The inflationary paradigm is an important cornerstone of the concordance cosmological model. However, standard inflation cannot fully address the transition from an early homogeneous and isotropic stage, to another one lacking such…
We address the issue of black hole scalarization and its compatibility with cosmic inflation and big bang cosmology from an effective field theory (EFT) point of view. In practice, using a well-defined and healthy toy model which (in part)…
We discuss features of the inflaton potential that can lead to a strong enhancement of the power spectrum of curvature perturbations. We show that a steep decrease of the potential induces an enhancement of the spectrum by several orders of…
Gravitational backgrounds, such as black holes, AdS, de Sitter and inflationary universes, should be viewed as composite of N soft constituent gravitons. It then follows that such systems are close to quantum criticality of graviton…
The curvature singularity problem in $f(R)$ dark energy models poses a significant challenge to their viability as alternatives to the $\Lambda$CDM paradigm. In this work, we investigate the possibility of resolving this issue by…
Noncommutative geometry can provide effective description of physics at very short distances taking into account generic effects of quantum gravity. Inflation amplifies tiny quantum fluctuations in the early universe to macroscopic scales…
Quantum gravity, as a fundamental theory of space-time, is expected to reveal how the universe may have started, perhaps during or before an inflationary epoch. It may then leave a potentially observable (but probably minuscule) trace in…
The modified gravity, which eliminates the need for dark energy and which seems to be stable, is considered. The terms with positive powers of the curvature support the inflationary epoch while the terms with negative powers of the…
We investigate a model of $R^2$-gravity with a non-minimally coupled scalar field that gives rise to two-stage inflation with a break, that is, with an intermediate stage where inflation momentarily halts. We find that the power spectrum of…
We perform a cosmological analysis in which we allow the primordial power spectrum of scalar perturbations to assume a shape that is different with respect to the usual power-law, arising from the simplest models of cosmological inflation.…
A generic feature of viable $F(R)$ gravity is investigated: It is demonstrated that during the matter dominated era the large frequency oscillations of the effective dark energy may influence the behavior of higher derivatives of the Hubble…