Related papers: Scale independent $R^2$ inflation
Within an expansion in slow-roll inflation parameters, we derive the complete second-order expressions relating the ratio of tensor to scalar density perturbations and the spectral index of the scalar spectrum. We find that ``corrections''…
In this paper we provide an accurate bound on primordial gravitational waves, i.e. tensor-to-scalar ratio $(r)$ for a general class of single-field models of inflation where inflation occurs always below the Planck scale, and the field…
The nature of the scalar field responsible for the cosmological inflation, the \qo{inflaton}, is found to be rooted in the most fundamental concept of the Weyl's differential geometry: the parallel displacement of vectors in curved…
We give a detailed analysis of the particle spectrum and the perturbative unitarity of the recently introduced Weyl-invariant version of the new massive gravity in 2+1 dimensions. By computing the action up to second order in the…
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…
We study the evolution of quantum fluctuations of gravity around an inflationary solution in renormalizable quantum gravity, in which the initial scalar-fluctuation dominance is shown by the background-free nature expressed by a special…
We show that if the inflaton has a non-minimal coupling to gravity and the Planck scale is dynamically generated, the results of Coleman-Weinberg inflation are confined in between two attractor solutions: quadratic inflation, which is ruled…
Popular wisdom suggests that measuring the tensor to scalar ratio $r$ on CMB scales is a "proof of inflation" since one generic prediction is a scale-invariant tensor spectrum while alternatives predict $r$ that is many orders of magnitude…
We investigate a nonsingular initial state of the Universe which leads to inflation naturally. The model is described by a scalar field with a quadratic potential in Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld gravity. The curvature of this initial…
Scale invariance is considered in the context of gravitational theories where the action, in the first order formalism, is of the form $S = \int L_{1} \Phi d^4x$ + $\int L_{2}\sqrt{-g}d^4x$ where the volume element $\Phi d^4x$ is…
In Starobinsky inflation with a Weyl squared Lagrangian $-\alpha C^2$, where $\alpha$ is a coupling constant, we study the linear stability of cosmological perturbations on a spatially flat Friedmann-Lema\^{i}tre-Robertson-Walker…
We generalize the notion of constant-roll inflation earlier introduced in General Relativity (GR) and $f(R)$ gravity to inflationary models in more general scalar-tensor gravity. A number of novel exact analytic solutions for a FLRW…
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…
In this paper we break the scale invariance of the primordial power spectrum of curvature perturbations of inflation. Introducing a singular behaviour due to spontaneous symmetry breaking in the inflaton potential, we obtain fully analytic…
We consider the large-scale cosmic structure generation by an inflation based on a pure f(R)-type gravity theory. Comparison with recent CMBR observations gives the following results: (1) The near Zel'dovich spectral conditions uniquely…
We study the quantum fluctuations of scalar fields with a variable effective mass during an inflationary phase. We consider the situation where the effective mass depends on a background scalar field, which evolves during inflation from…
The most conventional mechanism for gravitational waves (gw) production during inflation is the amplification of vacuum metric fluctuations. In this case the gw production can be uniquely related to the inflationary expansion rate $H$. For…
We review inflationary cosmology in modified gravity such as $R^2$ gravity with its extensions in order to generalize the Starobinsky inflation model. In particular, we explore inflation realized by three kinds of effects: modification of…
We consider cosmological inflation generated by a scalar field slowly rolling off from a de Sitter maximum of its potential. The models belong to the class of hilltop models and represent the most general model of this kind in which the…
We study models of inflation where the scalar field $\phi$ that drives inflation is coupled non-minimally to gravity via $\xi \phi^2 R$, or where the gravity sector is enlarged by an $R^2$ term. We consider the original Higgs inflation,…