Related papers: Avoiding instabilities in antisymmetric tensor fie…
The methods of effective field theory are used to study generic theories of inflation with a single inflaton field. For scalar modes, the leading corrections to the ${\cal R}$ correlation function are found to be purely of the $k$-inflation…
According to the famous Lyth bound, one can confirm large field inflation by finding tensor modes with sufficiently large tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$. Here we will try to answer two related questions: Is it possible to rule out all large…
It is quite well known for some time that string inspired axionic terms of the form $\nu (\phi)\tilde{R}R$, known also as Chern-Simons terms, do not affect the scalar perturbations and the background evolution for a flat…
A field kinetic coupling with the Einstein tensor leads to a gravitationally enhanced friction during inflation, by which even steep potentials with theoretically natural model parameters can drive cosmic acceleration. In the presence of…
We consider a new inflationary model in which an antisymmetric tensor field $A_{\nu\rho\sigma}$ and its four-form field strength $F_{\mu\nu\rho\sigma}=4\partial_{[\mu} A_{\nu\rho\sigma]}$ are coupled to the scalar sector of the standard…
It has been suggested that a scalar field with negative kinetic energy, or ``ghost,'' could be the source of the observed late-time cosmological acceleration. Naively, such theories should be ruled out by the catastrophic quantum…
We consider the inflationary universe with a spectator scalar field coupled to a $U(1)$ gauge field and calculate curvature perturbation and gravitational waves (GWs). We find that the sourced GWs can be larger than the one from vacuum…
Massive bigravity, a theoretically consistent modification of general relativity with an additional dynamical rank two tensor, successfully describes the observed accelerated expansion of the Universe without a cosmological constant. Recent…
We study FRW cosmology for a double scalar - tensor theory of gravity where two scalar fields are nonminimally coupled to the geometry. In a framework to study stability and attractor solutions of the model in the phase space, we constraint…
We consider the possibility of realizing inflation in nonlocal field theories containing infinitely many derivatives. Such constructions arise naturally in string field theory and also in a number of toy models, such as the p-adic string.…
We consider the effects of the quantum stress tensor fluctuations of a conformal field in generating gravity waves in inflationary models. We find a non-scale invariant, non-Gaussian contribution which depends upon the total expansion…
Supersolid inflation is a class of inflationary theories that simultaneously breaks time and space reparameterization invariance during inflation, with distinctive features for the dynamics of cosmological fluctuations. We investigate…
We investigate inflation within $f(R,\phi)$-theories, where a dynamical scalar field is coupled to gravity. A class of models which can support early-time acceleration with the emerging of an effective cosmological constant at high…
The representation theory of de Sitter space allows for a category of partially massless particles which have no flat space analog, but could have existed during inflation. We study the couplings of these exotic particles to inflationary…
We present a complete analysis of the imprint of tensor anisotropies on the Cosmic Microwave Background for a class of f(R) gravity theories within the PPF-CAMB framework. We derive the equations, both for the cosmological background and…
We study a scalar-tensor cosmological model where the Einstein tensor is non-minimally coupled to the free scalar field dynamics. Using FRW metric, we investigate the behavior of scale factor for vacuum, matter and dark energy dominated…
We analyze the dynamics of inflationary models with a coupling of the inflaton $\phi$ to gauge fields of the form $\phi F \tilde{F}/f$, as in the case of axions. It is known that this leads to an instability, with exponential amplification…
We present a setup that provides a partial UV-completion of the ghost inflation model up to a scale which can be almost as high as the Planck mass. This is achieved by coupling the inflaton to the Lorentz-violating sector described by the…
We review how the (absence of) Ostrogradsky instability manifests itself in theories with multiple fields. It has recently been appreciated that when multiple fields are present, the existence of higher derivatives may not automatically…
In this letter we point out that the massive gravity theory with a graviton ghost mode in de Sitter background cannot possess a de Sitter invariant vacuum state. In order to avoid a negative norm state, we must associate the creation…