Related papers: Squeezing the Axion
In the standard inflationary paradigm, cosmological density perturbations are generated as quantum fluctuations in the early Universe, but then undergo a quantum-to-classical transition. A key role in this transition is played by squeezing…
We investigate the possibility of preheating in hybrid inflation. This scenario involves at least two scalar fields, the inflaton field $\phi$, and the symmetry breaking field $\sigma$. We found that the behavior of these fields after…
The initial quantum state during inflation may evolve to a highly squeezed quantum state due to the amplification of the time-dependent parameter, $\omega_{phys}(k/a)$, which may be the modified dispersion relation in trans-Planckian…
For the minimal QCD axion model it is generally believed that overproduction of dark matter constrains the axion mass to be above a certain threshold, or at least that the initial misalignment angle must be tuned if the mass is below that…
We consider the scale-invariant inflationary model studied in [1]. The Lagrangian includes all the scale-invariant operators that can be built with combinations of $R$, $R^2$ and one scalar field. The equations of motion show that the…
If dark matter is made of QCD axions, its abundance is determined by the vacuum expectation value acquired by the axion field during inflation. The axion is usually assumed to follow the equilibrium distribution arising from quantum…
We study the quantum fluctuations of scalar fields with a variable effective mass during an inflationary phase. We consider the situation where the effective mass depends on a background scalar field, which evolves during inflation from…
We analyze the dynamics of inflationary models with a coupling of the inflaton $\phi$ to gauge fields of the form $\phi F \tilde{F}/f$, as in the case of axions. It is known that this leads to an instability, with exponential amplification…
We compute the rate with which super-Hubble cosmological fluctuations are decohered during inflation, by their gravitational interactions with unobserved shorter-wavelength scalar and tensor modes. We do so using Open Effective Field Theory…
Reheating after inflation occurs due to particle production by the oscillating inflaton field. In this paper we describe the perturbative approach to reheating, and then concentrate on effects beyond the perturbation theory. They are…
Solid inflation is a cosmological model where inflation is driven by fields which enter the Lagrangian in the same way as body coordinates of a solid matter enter the equation of state, spontaneously breaking spatial translational and…
We study the behaviour of inflationary density perturbations in the vicinity of horizon crossing, using numerical evolution of the relevant mode equations. We explore two specific scenarios. In one, inflation is temporarily ended because a…
There seems to exist agreement about the fact that inflation squeezes the quantum state of cosmological perturbations and entangles modes with wavenumbers $\vec k$ and $-\vec k$. Paradoxically, this result has been used to justify both the…
Recently, attempts have been made to understand the apparent near coincidence of the present dark energy and matter energy in terms of a dynamical attractor-like solution for the evolution of a scalar field. In these models the field…
Observable primordial tensor modes in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) would point to a high scale of inflation $H_{I}$. If the scale of Peccei-Quinn (PQ) breaking $f_a$ is greater than $\frac{H_{I}}{2\pi}$, CMB constraints on…
We study the decoherence of massive fields during inflation based on the Zurek's density matrix approach. With the cubic interaction between inflaton and massive fields, the reduced density matrix for the massive fields can be calculated in…
We propose a novel mechanism to suppress the isocurvature perturbations of the QCD axion. The point is that the QCD interactions become strong at an intermediate or high energy scale in the very early Universe, if the Higgs field has a…
Starting with the Lagrangian formulation of General Relativity, we will conduct an investigation into the production of spacetime waves, due to a geometric boundary term of a closed extended manifold, within the tensor and scalar sectors.…
Massive particles produced during inflation impact soft limits of primordial correlators. Searching for these signatures presents an exciting opportunity to uncover the particle spectrum in the inflationary epoch. We present…
Cosmological scaling solutions, which give rise to a scalar-field density proportional to a background fluid density during radiation and matter eras, are attractive to alleviate the energy scale problem of dark energy. In the presence of…