Related papers: Axionlike Origin of the Primordial Density Perturb…
Axions play a central role in many realizations of large field models of inflation and in recent alternative mechanisms for generating primordial tensor modes in small field models. If these axions couple to gauge fields, the coupling…
In axion gauge field inflation an axion-like particle driving cosmic inflation is coupled to the Chern-Simons density of an Abelian or non-Abelian gauge group. In the case of a non-Abelian gauge group, this can lead to the formation of a…
We consider the presence and evolution of primordial density perturbations in a cosmological model based on a simple ansatz which captures -- by providing a set of effective gravitational field equations -- the strength of the enhanced…
We study thermally induced density perturbations during inflation. This scenario is characterized by two thermodynamical conditions: (1) The primordial perturbations originate in the epoch when the inflationary universe contains a…
We suggest the new feature of primordial gravitational waves sourced by the axion-gauge couplings, whose forms are motivated by the dimensional reduction of the form field in the string theory. In our inflationary model, as an inflaton we…
We study the axionic inflation with a modulated potential and examine if the primordial tensor power spectrum exhibits oscillatory feature, which is testable with future space-based gravitational wave experiments such as DECIGO and BBO. In…
Models of axion inflation are particularly interesting since they provide a natural justification for the flatness of the potential over a super-Planckian distance, namely the approximate shift-symmetry of the inflaton. In addition, most of…
Recently a mechanism was proposed whereby the primordial density perturbations are generated at the end of inflation. We continue the analysis of the proposed model of this mechanism and calculate the maximum extent to which the density…
Axion-like dark matter whose symmetry breaking occurs after the end of inflation predicts enhanced primordial density fluctuations at small scales. This leads to dense axion minihalos (or miniclusters) forming early in the history of the…
Axion inflation entails a coupling of the inflaton field to gauge fields through the Chern-Simons term. This results in a strong gauge field production during inflation, which backreacts on the inflaton equation of motion. Here we show that…
The motion of a pseudo-scalar field $X$ during inflation naturally induces a significant amplification of the gauge fields to which it is coupled. The amplified gauge fields can source characteristic scalar and tensor primordial…
In this talk, I review briefly a scenario for the evolution of a string-inspired cosmological model, in which condensates of primordial gravitational waves (GW), formed at the very early eras after the Big Bang, are considered responsible…
We investigate the non-perturbatively generated axion-like particle (ALP) potential, involving fermions in the dark sector that couple to the ALP, in an early cosmological inflationary stage with the ALP being a spectator field. The…
Axions are produced during a period of dilaton-driven inflation by amplification of quantum fluctuations. We show that for some range of string cosmology parameters and some range of axion masses, primordial axions may constitute a large…
Theories with several hundred axion fields have enormous numbers of distinct meta-stable minima. A small fraction of these local minima have vacuum energy compatible with current measurements of dark energy. The potential also contains…
We consider primordial fluctuations in thermal inflation scenario. Since the thermal inflation drives about 10 $e$-folds after the standard inflation, the time of horizon-exit during inflation corresponding to the present observational…
In models of natural inflation, the inflaton is an axion-like particle. Unfortunately, axion potentials in UV-complete theories appear to be too steep to drive inflation. We show that, even for a steep potential, natural inflation can occur…
We study the non-Gaussianities generated by light axions, or compact scalar fields, during inflation. To correctly calculate their impact on primordial statistics, we will argue that it is necessary to account for the periodicity, or gauge…
We numerically study axion-U(1) inflation, focusing on the regime where the coupling between axions and gauge fields results in significant backreaction from the amplified gauge fields during inflation. These amplified gauge fields not only…
We develop a possibility of generating tensor non-Gaussianity in a kind of anisotropic inflation, where a $U(1)$ gauge field is kinetically coupled to a spectator scalar field. Owing to this coupling, the coherent mode of the electric field…