Related papers: Inflation and Decoupling
In order to solve the fine-tuning problem of the cosmological constant, we propose a simple model with the vacuum energy non-minimally coupled to the inflaton field. In this model, the vacuum energy decays to the inflaton during…
We analyse the self-consistency of inflation in the Standard Model, where the Higgs field has a large non-minimal coupling to gravity. We determine the domain of energies in which this model represents a valid effective field theory as a…
Inflation may have been driven by a component which violated the Null-Energy Condition, thereby leading to {\it super inflation}. We provide the formalism to study cosmological perturbations when such a component is described by a scalar…
Motivated by the recently proposed Trans-Planckian Censorship Conjecture (TCC), we propose a gauged $B-L$ model of inflection-point inflation with axion dark matter. The Hubble scale during inflation ($H_{\rm inf}$) satisfies the TCC bound…
The cosmological curvature perturbation may be generated when some `curvaton' field, different from the inflaton, oscillates in a background of unperturbed radiation. In its simplest form the curvaton paradigm requires the Hubble parameter…
We investigate, in a model-independent way, the conditions required to obtain a satisfactory model of extended inflation in which inflation is brought to an end by a first-order phase transition. The constraints are that the correct present…
We investigate a class of models of topological inflation in which a super-Hubble-sized global monopole seeds inflation. These models are attractive since inflation starts from rather generic initial conditions, but their not so attractive…
A model of cosmological inflation is proposed in which field space is a hyperbolic plane. The inflaton never slow-rolls, and instead orbits the bottom of the potential, buoyed by a centrifugal force. Though initial velocities redshift away…
In this paper my prime objective is to analyze the constraints on a sub-Planckian excursion of a single inflaton field within Effective Field Theory framework in a model independent fashion. For a generic single field inflationary…
The weak gravity conjecture imposes severe constraints on natural inflation. A trans-Planckian axion decay constant can only be realized if the potential exhibits an additional (subdominant) modulation with sub-Planckian periodicity. The…
Slow-roll inflation can become eternal if the quantum variance of the inflaton field around its slowly rolling classical trajectory is converted into a distribution of classical spacetimes inflating at different rates, and if the variance…
In this study, we provide an alternatively reformulated interpretation of Gibbons-Hawking radiation as well as inflation. By using a spacetime quantization procedure, proposed recently by L.C. C\'eleri et al., in anti-de Sitter space we…
In this paper we consider the influence of transplanckian physics on the CMBR anisotropies produced by inflation. We consider a simple toy model that allows for analytic calculations and argue on general grounds, based on ambiguities in the…
We examine the inflationary modes in the cubic curvature theories in the context of asymptotically safe gravity. On the phase space of the Hubble parameter, there exists a critical point which corresponds to the slow-roll inflation in…
We investigate the possibility that fields coupled to the inflaton can influence the primordial spectrum of density perturbations through their coherent motion. For example, the second field in hybrid inflation might be oscillating at the…
We investigate linear cosmological perturbations in multiple field inflationary models where some of the directions are light while others are heavy (with respect to the Hubble parameter). By integrating out the massive degrees of freedom,…
The latest released data from Planck in 2018, put up tighter constraints on inflationary parameters. In the present article, the in-built symmetry of the non-minimally coupled scalar-tensor theory of gravity is used to fix the coupling…
Observable quantities in cosmology are dimensionless, and therefore independent of the units in which they are measured. This is true of all physical quantities associated with the primordial perturbations that source cosmic microwave…
Last year we argued that if slow-roll inflation followed the decay of a false vacuum in a large landscape, the steepening of the scalar potential between the inflationary plateau and the barrier generically leads to a potentially observable…
Recently Hollands and Wald argued that inflation does not solve any of the major cosmological problems. We explain why we disagree with their arguments. They also proposed a new speculative mechanism of generation of density perturbations.…