Related papers: Probing the Seesaw Mechanism with Cosmological Dat…
We review the dynamics of spectator scalar fields non-minimally coupled to gravity in the post-inflationary Universe, with particular emphasis on scenarios where the end of inflation is followed by a period of kination. In this context, the…
We obtain cosmological constraints on models of inflation which exhibit rapid roll solutions. Rapid roll attractors exist for potentials with large mass terms and are thus of interest for inflationary model building within string theory. We…
We point out three correlated predictions of the axion monodromy inflation model: large amplitude of gravitational waves, suppression of power on horizon scales and on scales relevant for the formation of dwarf galaxies. While these…
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…
We consider a class of inflationary models with small oscillations imprinted on an otherwise smooth inflaton potential. These oscillations are manifest as oscillations in the power spectrum of primordial perturbations, which then give rise…
We study a scalar field with non-minimal kinetic coupling to itself and to the curvature. The slow rolling conditions allowing an inflationary background have been found. The quadratic and Higgs type potentials have been considered, and the…
We study models of modular inflation of the form expected to arise from low energy effective actions of superstring theories. We argue on general grounds that the most likely models of modular slow-roll inflation are small field models in…
We discuss a realization of a small field inflation based on string inspired supergravities. In theories accompanying extra dimensions, compactification of them with small radii is required for realistic situations. Since the extra…
We propose a new class of natural inflation models based on a hidden scale invariance. In a very generic Wilsonian effective field theory with an arbitrary number of scalar fields, which exhibits scale invariance via the dilaton, the…
The inflaton equation of motion including one loop radiative corrections from spectator fields is obtained. We consider a massless scalar conformally coupled to gravity and a massless fermion Yukawa coupled to the inflaton as models for…
Scalar-induced gravitational waves (SIGWs) provide a powerful probe of inflationary dynamics on scales far smaller than those accessible to the cosmic microwave background and large-scale structure. In scenarios with a transient…
An approach to construct cosmological inflation models on the basis of a certain dependence of the scalar field evolution on the e-folds number is considered. The reconstruction of the model background parameters according to the kind of…
In this paper, we consider a nonminimal coupling model between gravity and nonlinear electrodynamics with cosmological constant. This cosmological model is designed to account for both the inflationary epoch of the early universe and the…
We study inflation induced by (power-low) scalar curvature corrections to General Relativity. The class of inflationary scalar potentials $V(\sigma)\sim\exp[n\,\sigma]$, $n$ general parameter, is investigated in the Einsein frame and the…
In this doctoral thesis, we study both low- and high-energy observables related to massive neutrinos. Neutrino oscillations have provided indisputable evidence in favour of non-zero neutrino masses and mixings. However, the original…
We review the relation between the inflationary potential and the spectra of density (scalar) perturbations and gravitational waves (tensor perturbations) produced, with particular emphasis on the possibility of reconstructing the inflaton…
Current bounds from the polarization of the CMB predict the scale-invariant gravitational wave (GW) background of inflation to be out of reach for upcoming GW interferometers. This prospect dramatically changes if the inflaton is a…
Usual inflation is realized with a slow rolling scalar field minimally coupled to gravity. In contrast, we consider dynamics of a scalar with a flat effective potential, conformally coupled to gravity. Surprisingly, it contains an attractor…
An intermediate inflationary universe model within the context of non-minimally coupled to the scalar curvature is analyzed. We will conduct our analysis under the slow roll approximation of the inflationary dynamics and the cosmological…
In this thesis, we discuss several instances in which non-linear behaviour affects cosmological evolution in the early Universe. We begin by reviewing the standard cosmological model and the tools used to understand it theoretically and to…