Related papers: Lorentz violating inflation and the Swampland
We briefly discuss constraints on supersymmetric hybrid inflation models and examine the consistency of brane inflation models. We then address the implications for inflationary scenarios resulting from the strong constraints on the cosmic…
In negatively curved field spaces, inflation can be realised even in steep potentials. Hyperinflation invokes the `centrifugal force' of a field orbiting the hyperbolic plane to sustain inflation. We generalise hyperinflation by showing…
In spite of the phenomenological successes of the inflationary universe scenario, the current realizations of inflation making use of scalar fields lead to serious conceptual problems which are reviewed in this lecture. String theory may…
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…
We consider inflation in a universe with a positive cosmological constant and a nonminimally coupled scalar field, in which the field couples both quadratically and quartically to the Ricci scalar. When considered in the Einstein frame and…
We investigate the perturbation theory of a fixed-norm, timelike Lorentz-violating vector field. After consistently quantizing the vector field to put constraints on its parameters, we compute the primordial spectra of perturbations…
We study the cosmology of a recent model of supersymmetry breaking, in the presence of a tuneable positive cosmological constant, based on a gauged shift symmetry of a string modulus that can be identified with the string dilaton. The…
The refined de Sitter derivative conjecture provides constraints to potentials that are low energy effective theories of quantum gravity. It can give direct bounds on inflationary scenarios and determine whether the theory is in the…
In the framework of Supersymmetric Grand Unified Theories (SUSY GUTs), the universe undergoes a cascade of symmetry breakings, during which topological defects can be formed. We address the question of the probability of cosmic string…
In this paper, we investigate models where a scalar field driving inflation is minimally coupled with gravity and it is subjected to a scalar potential. We present several examples of coupling between the field and gravity, and we furnish…
During single clock inflation, hidden fields (i.e. fields coupled to the inflaton only gravitationally) in their adiabatic vacua can ordinarily only affect observables through virtual effects. After renormalizing background quantities…
We have investigated a number of GUT models for the possibility that their Higgs fields might be responsible for inflation in the early universe. In addition to models having an intrinsic Planck mass parameter, we have entertained…
At its very beginning, the universe is believed to have grown exponentially in size via the mechanism of inflation. The almost scale-invariant density perturbation spectrum predicted by inflation is strongly supported by cosmological…
We consider a possibility that the Higgs field in the Standard Model (SM) serves as an inflaton when its value is around the Planck scale. We assume that the SM is valid up to an ultraviolet cutoff scale \Lambda, which is slightly below the…
From a model-building perspective, the inflationary sector might very well have no direct couplings to other species, apart from inevitable gravitational interactions. Within the context of General Relativity, a thermal universe can still…
In this work we consider quantum electromagnetic fields in an expanding universe. We start by reviewing the difficulties found when trying to impose the Lorenz condition in a time-dependent geometry. Motivated by this fact, we explore the…
In scalaron-Higgs inflation the Standard Model Higgs boson is non-minimally coupled to gravity and the Einstein-Hilbert action is supplemented by the quadratic scalar curvature invariant. For the quartic Higgs self-coupling $\lambda$ fixed…
The shortcomings of the Standard Big Bang Cosmological Model as well as their resolution in the context of inflationary cosmology are discussed. The inflationary scenario and the subsequent oscillation and decay of the inflaton field are…
The scenario of the slow-roll inflation is studied in the frame of the scalar-tensor theory of gravity where the scalar field has a non-minimal coupling to the geometric part. After deriving the main dynamical and perturbation equations,…
In this paper, we examine a flat FLRW spacetime with a scalar field potential and show by applying Osgood's criterion to the Einstein field equations that all such models, irrespective of the particular choice of potential develop…