Related papers: Quantum Fluctuations at the Planck Scale
Defining a scale of $k$-modes of the quantum fluctuations during inflation through the dynamical horizon crossing condition $k = aH$ we go from the physical $t$ variable to $k$ variable and solve the equations of cosmological first-order…
The Higgs field is an attractive candidate for the inflaton because it is an observationally confirmed fundamental scalar field. Importantly, it can be modeled by the most general renormalizable scalar potential. However, if the classical…
We consider inflation in a universe with a positive cosmological constant and a nonminimally coupled scalar field, in which the field couples both quadratically and quartically to the Ricci scalar. When considered in the Einstein frame and…
Following a self-contained review of the basics of the theory of cosmological perturbations, we discuss why the conclusions reached in the recent paper by Kaloper et al are too pessimistic estimates of the amplitude of possible imprints of…
In this paper, we calculate the spectrum of scalar field fluctuations in a bouncing, asymptotically flat Universe, and investigate the dependence of the result on changes in the physics on length scales shorter than the Planck length which…
We employ the semiclassical approximation to the Wheeler-DeWitt equation in the spatially flat de Sitter Universe to investigate the dynamics of a minimally coupled scalar field near the Planck scale. We find that, contrary to naive…
A Randall-Sundrum type brane-cosmological model in which slow-roll inflation on the brane is driven solely by a bulk scalar field was recently proposed by Himemoto and Sasaki. We analyze their model in detail and calculate the quantum…
The observational constraints on the primordial power spectrum have tightened considerably with the release of the first year analysis of the WMAP observations, especially when combined with the results from other CMB experiments and galaxy…
The quantum gravitational scale of inflation is calculated by finding a sharp probability peak in the distribution function of chaotic inflationary cosmologies driven by a scalar field with large negative constant $\xi$ of nonminimal…
Within the inflationary scenario, Planck scale physics should have affected the comoving modes' initial conditions and early evolution, thereby potentially affecting the inflationary predictions for the cosmic microwave background (CMB).…
Detailed measurements of the cosmic microwave background indicate the large-scale homogeneity of the universe. On very small scales, we observe however inhomogeneities such as galaxies, stars, planets and ourselves. In the context of hot…
We point out that the prediction of the minimal chaotic inflation model is altered if a scalar field takes a large field value close to the Planck scale during inflation due to a negative Hubble induced mass. In particular, we show that the…
In this work we shall study $k$-inflation theories with non-minimal coupling of the scalar field to gravity, in the presence of only a higher order kinetic term of the form $\sim \mathrm{const}\times X^{\mu}$, with…
We discuss the phenomenology of recently proposed holographic models of inflation, in which the very early universe is non-geometric and is described by a dual three-dimensional quantum field theory (QFT). We analyze models determined by a…
Inflationary models based on a single scalar field $\phi$ with a quadratic potential $V = \frac{1}{2} m^2 \phi^2$ are disfavoured by the recent Planck constraints on the scalar index, $n_s$, and the tensor-to-scalar ratio for cosmological…
We investigate a particle physics model for cosmic inflation based on the following assumptions: (i) there are at least two complex scalar fields; (ii) the scalar potential is bounded from below and remains perturbative up to the Planck…
Quantum fluctuations of a nonminimally coupled scalar field in D-dimensional homogeneous and isotropic background are calculated within the operator formalism in curved models with time evolutions of the scale factor that allow smooth…
For a certain type of modified dispersion relations, the vacuum quantum state for very short wavelength cosmological perturbations is scale-invariant and it has been suggested that this may be the source of the scale-invariance observed in…
We calculate the power spectrum of vacuum fluctuations of a generic scalar field in a quantum cosmological setting that is manifestly singularity-free. The power spectrum is given in terms of the usual scale invariant spectrum plus scale…
Light scalar fields acquire isocurvature fluctuations during inflation. While these fluctuations could lead to interesting observable signatures at small scales, they are strongly constrained on large scales by cosmic microwave background…