Related papers: Extended interactions in the Palatini-$R^2$ inflat…
The aim of this paper is to provide a more precise description of the paradigm of corpuscular slow-roll inflation, which was previously introduced by Casadio et al. in [1]. Specifically, we start by expanding the Starobinsky theory on a…
We study inflationary models in which the effective potential of the inflaton field does not have a minimum, but rather gradually decreases at large $\phi$. In such models the inflaton field does not oscillate after inflation, and its…
We discuss the soundness of inflationary scenarios in theories beyond the Starobinsky model, namely a class of theories described by arbitrary functions of the Ricci scalar and the K-essence field. We discuss the pathologies associated with…
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…
Inflationary models based on a single scalar field $\phi$ with a quadratic potential $V = \frac{1}{2} m^2 \phi^2$ are disfavoured by the recent Planck constraints on the scalar index, $n_s$, and the tensor-to-scalar ratio for cosmological…
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…
We study how Abelian-gauge-field production during inflation affects scalar perturbations in the case when the gauge field interacts with the inflaton directly (by means of generic kinetic and axial couplings) and via gravity. The…
In the transition between inflation and reheating, the curvature scalar typically undergoes oscillations which have significant impact on the density of gravitationally produced particles. The commonly used adiabatic vacuum prescription for…
We study two-field inflation derived from a single complex scalar field with a nonzero vacuum expectation value. The dynamics of inflation are governed by two parameters, the vacuum expectation value and the mass parameter of the phase…
The Starobinsky model predicts a primordial inflation period without the presence of an inflaton field. The modified version of this model predicts a simple time dependence for the Hubble parameter $H(t)$, which decreases slowly between the…
I describe a general approach to characterizing cosmological inflation outside the standard slow-roll approximation, based on the Hamilton-Jacobi formulation of scalar field dynamics. The basic idea is to view the equation of state of the…
The curvaton and the inhomogeneous reheating scenarios for the generation of the cosmological curvature perturbation on large scales represent an alternative to the standard slow-roll scenario where the observed density perturbations are…
We investigate the Lyth relationship between the tensor-scalar ratio, r, and the variation of the inflaton field, Delta phi, over the course of inflation. For inflationary models that produce at least 55 e-folds of inflation, there is a…
We consider the effect of the Gibbons-Hawking radiation on the inflaton in the situation where it is coupled to a large number of spectator fields. We argue that this will lead to two important effects - a thermal contribution to the…
In a recent work, we demonstrated that a modified gravity model in which a scalar "darkon" field is coupled to both the standard Riemannian metric and to another non-Riemannian volume form is compatible with observational data from…
We study the inflationary model with a spectator scalar field $\chi$ coupled to both the inflaton and Ricci scalar. The interaction between the $\chi$ field and the gravity, denoted by $\xi R\chi^2$, can trigger the tachyonic instability of…
We consider a subclass of Horndeski theories for studying cosmic inflation. In particular, we investigate models of inflation in which the derivative self-interaction of the scalar field and the non-minimal derivative coupling to gravity…
Warm inflation includes inflaton interactions with other fields throughout the inflationary epoch instead of confining such interactions to a distinct reheating era. Previous investigations have shown that, when certain constraints on the…
One of the simplest possible candidates for dark matter is a stable scalar singlet beyond the Standard Model. If its mass is below the Hubble scale during inflation, long-wavelength modes of this scalar will be excited during inflation, and…
In this work, we investigate the possibility of generating an inflationary mechanism within the framework of a metric-$f(R)$ modified gravity theory, formulated in the Jordan frame. We explore whether the scalar field, non-minimally coupled…