Related papers: Novel mechanism for CMB modulation in the Standard…
We propose a new source for the cosmological density perturbation which is passive fluctuations of the inflaton driven dynamically by a colored quantum noise as a result of its coupling to other massive quantum fields. The created…
We investigate a framework aiming to provide a common origin for the large-angle anomalies detected in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), which are hypothesized as the result of the statistical inhomogeneity developed by different…
The primordial inflation dilutes all matter except the quantum fluctuations which we see in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation. Therefore the last phases of inflation must be embedded within a beyond the Standard Model (SM)…
We discuss a minimal extension of the Standard Model (SM) where a single real scalar field serves as both inflaton and dark matter. The corresponding Lagrangian contains the renormalizable interactions of the inflaton field. Quantum effects…
Compensated isocurvature perturbations (CIPs) are modes in which the baryon and dark matter density fluctuations cancel. They arise in the curvaton scenario as well as some models of baryogenesis. While they leave no observable effects on…
We investigate the production of a spectator scalar dark matter field that is directly coupled to the inflaton during inflation and reheating. We consider two specific inflationary potentials, namely the Starobinsky and T-model of…
We compute the contribution to the scalar metric perturbations from large-scale magnetic fields which are generated during inflation. We show that apart from the usual passive and compensated modes, the magnetic fields also contribute to…
The Standard Model Higgs boson, which has previously been shown to develop an effective vacuum expectation value during inflation, can give rise to large particle masses during inflation and reheating, leading to temporary blocking of the…
Understanding the properties of dark matter has proved to be one of the most challenging problems of particle phenomenology. In this paper, we have tried to understand the phenomenology of dark matter in light of very well understood…
We show that the modulated reheating mechanism can naturally account for dark radiation, whose existence is hinted by recent observations of the cosmic microwave background radiation and the primordial Helium abundance. In this mechanism,…
Contaldi et al. [1] have suggested that an initial period of kinetic energy domination in single field inflation may explain the lack of CMB power at large angular scales. We note that in this situation it is natural that there also be a…
A linear gradient mode must have no observable dynamical effect on short distance physics. We confirm this by showing that if there was such a gradient mode extending across the whole observable Universe, it would not cause any…
A suitable coupling of the inflaton phi to a vector kinetic term F^2 gives frozen and scale invariant vector perturbations. We compute the cosmological perturbations zeta that result from such coupling by taking into account the classical…
We argue that the Higgs boson of the Standard Model can lead to inflation and produce cosmological perturbations in accordance with observations. An essential requirement is the non-minimal coupling of the Higgs scalar field to gravity; no…
A total angular momentum representation simplifies the radiation transport problem for temperature and polarization anisotropy in the CMB. Scattering terms couple only the quadrupole moments of the distributions and each moment corresponds…
This is a course on cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies in the standard cosmological model, designed for beginning graduate students and advanced undergraduates. ``Standard cosmological model'' in this context means a Universe…
We reconsider the observed CMB dipolar asymmetry in the context of open inflation, where a supercurvature mode might survive the bubble nucleation. If such a supercurvature mode modulates the amplitude of the curvature power spectrum, it…
We revisit spectator field models including curvaton and modulated reheating scenarios, specifically focusing on their viability in the new Planck era, based on the derived expression for the spectral index in general spectator field…
We investigate the development of spectator (light test) field condensates due to their quantum fluctuations in a de Sitter inflationary background, making use of the stochastic formalism to describe the system. In this context, a…
We investigate the imprint of nonlinear matter condensations on the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) in an $\Omega=1$, Cold Dark Matter (CDM) model universe. Temperature anisotropies are obtained by numerically evolving matter…