Related papers: Fat Inflatons, Large Turns and the $\eta$-problem
Adopting a recently proposed single-superfield framework of supergravity inflation, we consider large field inflationary models in which MSSM Higgs-like fields play the role of the inflaton. In the simplest cases, the inflaton potential has…
We suggest a new type of hill-top inflation originating from the initial conditions in the form of the microcanonical density matrix for the cosmological model with a large number of quantum fields conformally coupled to gravity. Initial…
The tensor fraction $r\simeq 0.16$ found by BICEP2 corresponds to a Hubble parameter $H\simeq 1.0\times 10^{14}\GeV$ during inflation. This has two implications for the (single-field) slow-roll inflation hypothesis. First, the inflaton…
We derive some new constraints on single-field inflation from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe 3-year data combined with the Sloan Luminous Red Galaxy survey. Our work differs from previous analyses by focusing only on the…
A new mechanism to control Planck-scale corrections to the inflationary eta parameter is proposed. A common approach to the eta problem is to impose a shift symmetry on the inflaton field. However, this symmetry has to remain unbroken by…
Inflation generally assumes a field with nonzero potential that leads to inflationary expansion happening at arbitrarily early times. We demonstrate potentially observable consequences of inflation with a finite initial time in a model in…
We have constructed a large field N-flation model in the supergravity framework. In this simple set-up, N fields collectively drive inflation where each field traverses sub-Planckian field values. This has been realised with a…
We calculate the scalar gravitational and matter perturbations in the context of slow-roll inflation with multiple scalar fields, that take values on a (curved) manifold, to first order in slow roll. For that purpose a basis for these…
The calculation of scalar gravitational and matter perturbations during multiple-field inflation valid to first order in slow roll is discussed. These fields may be the coordinates of a non-trivial field manifold and hence have non-minimal…
The purpose of these lectures is to give a pedagogical introduction to inflation and the production of primordial perturbations, as well as a review of some of the latest developments in this domain. After a short introduction, we review…
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 explore inflationary cosmology in a theory where there are two scalar fields which non-minimally couple to the Ricci scalar and an additional $R^2$ term, which breaks the conformal invariance. Particularly, we investigate the slow-roll…
This work is focused on the study of early time cosmology and in particular on the study of inflation. After an introduction on the standard Big Bang theory, we discuss the physics of CMB and we explain how its observations can be used to…
We explore in detail the dynamics of multi-field inflationary models. We first revisit the two-field case and rederive the coordinate independent expression for the attractor solution with either small or large turn rate, emphasizing the…
Stochastic effects in generic scenarios of inflation with multiple fields are investigated. First passage time techniques are employed to calculate the statistical moments of the number of inflationary $e$-folds, which give rise to all…
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…
There are many inflationary models in which inflaton field does not satisfy the slow-roll condition. However, in such models, it is always difficult to generate the curvature perturbation during inflation. Thus, to generate the curvature…
One of the major pillars of modern cosmology theory is a period of accelerating expansion in the early universe. This accelerating expansion, or inflation, must be sustained for at least 30 e--foldings. One mechanism used to drive the…
We examine extended inflation models enhanced by the addition of a coupling between the inflaton field and the space-time curvature. We examine two types of model, where the underlying inflaton potential takes on second-order and…
We study the cosmological properties of a metastable de Sitter vacuum obtained recently in the framework of type IIB flux compactifications in the presence of three D7-brane stacks, based on perturbative quantum corrections at both…