Related papers: Inflation meets neutrinos
The inflationary cosmology paradigm is very successful in explaining the CMB anisotropy to the percent level. Besides the dependence on the inflationary model, the power spectra, spectral tilt and non-Gaussianity of the CMB temperature…
Flat directions in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) can become unstable due to radiative corrections, and the global minimum of the (zero temperature) potential can lie at large values of the squark and/or slepton fields.…
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…
Traditionally, inflationary models are analyzed in terms of parameters such as the scalar spectral index ns and the tensor to scalar ratio r, while dark energy models are studied in terms of the equation of state parameter w. Motivated by…
The light neutrino masses are at present most stringently constraint via cosmological probes. In particular the Planck collaboration reports $ \sum m_\nu \leq 0.12\,\mathrm{eV}$ at $95\%$ CL within the standard cosmological model. This is…
Previously defined covariant and gauge-invariant perturbation variables, representing, e.g., the fractional spatial energy density gradient on hypersurfaces of constant expansion, are used to simplify the linear perturbation analysis of a…
Probing correlations among short and long-wavelength cosmological fluctuations is known to be decisive for deepening the current understanding of inflation at the microphysical level. Spectral distortions of the CMB can be caused by…
A short introduction to structure formation is given, followed by a discussion of the possible characteristics of the initial perturbations assuming a generic inflationary origin. Observational data related to large-scale structure and the…
The Starobinsky inflation model is one of the simplest inflation models that is consistent with the cosmic microwave background observations. In order to explain dark matter of the universe, we consider a minimal extension of the…
Cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy may result from both scalar and tensor perturbations. For a sufficiently narrow range of angular scales, CMB perturbations can be characterized by four parameters. Results from the Cosmic…
I present a pedagogical review of inflation and the cosmic microwave background. I describe how a short period of accelerated expansion can replace the special initial conditions of the standard big bang model. I also describe the…
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…
It is conjectured that inflation, taking account of quantum gravity, leads to a discrete spectrum of cosmological perturbations, instead of the continuous Gaussian spectrum predicted by standard field theory in an unquantized background.…
The early stages of the universe evolution are discussed according to the hot big bang model and the grand unified theories. The shortcomings of big bang are summarized and their resolution by inflationary cosmology is sketched.…
We review the scenario of sneutrino hybrid inflation, where one of the singlet sneutrinos, the superpartners of the right-handed neutrinos, plays the role of the inflaton. In a minimal model of sneutrino hybrid inflation, the spectral index…
Light new vector bosons can be produced gravitationally through quantum fluctuations during inflation; if these particles are feebly coupled and cosmologically metastable, they can account for the observed dark matter abundance. However, in…
Observable primordial tensor modes in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) would point to a high scale of inflation $H_{I}$. If the scale of Peccei-Quinn (PQ) breaking $f_a$ is greater than $\frac{H_{I}}{2\pi}$, CMB constraints on…
For simple inflationary models, we provide a consistent and complete scheme by which the macro-physical details of early universe inflation may be determined explicitly from the underlying micro-physical theory. We examine inflationary…
We briefly discuss constraints on supersymmetric hybrid inflation models and examine the consistency of brane inflation models. We then address the implications for inflationary scenarios resulting from the strong constraints on the cosmic…
Inflationary scenarios motivated by the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) where five scalar fields are non-minimally coupled to gravity are considered. The potential of the model and the function of non-minimal coupling are…