Related papers: Large-scale gauge spectra and pseudoscalar couplin…
I study the gauge-invariant fluctuations of the metric during inflation. In the infrared sector the metric fluctuations can be represented by a coarse-grained field. We can write a Schroedinger equation for the coarse-grained metric…
Any attempt to understand the ubiquitous nature of the magnetic field in the present universe seems to lead us towards its primordial origin. For large-scale magnetic fields, however, their strength and length scale may not necessarily…
Supersymmetry breaking close to the scale of grand unification can explain cosmic inflation. As we demonstrate in this paper, this can be achieved in strongly coupled supersymmetric gauge theories, such that the energy scales of inflation…
Cosmological magnetic fields pervade the entire universe, from small to large scales. Since they apparently extend into the intergalactic medium, it is tantalizing to believe that they have a primordial origin, possibly being produced…
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…
Supersymmetry is generally broken by the non-vanishing vacuum energy density present during inflation. In supergravity models, such a source of supersymmetry breaking typically makes a contribution to scalar masses of order ${\tilde m}^2…
We study the dynamics of $SU(2)_L$ times $U(1)_Y$ electroweak gauge fields during and after Higgs inflation. In particular, we investigate configurations of the gauge fields during inflation and find the gauge fields remain topologically…
[Abridged] A sharp cut-off in the primordial scalar power spectrum on large scales has been known to improve the fit to the cosmic microwave background (CMB) data when compared to the more standard, nearly scale invariant power spectrum…
The simplest gauge invariant models of inflationary magnetogenesis are known to suffer from the problems of either large backreaction or strong coupling, which make it difficult to self-consistently achieve cosmic magnetic fields from…
We show how hybrid inflation can be successfully realized in a supersymmetric model with gauge group G_{PS}= SU(4)_c x SU(2)_L x SU(2)_R. By including a non-renormalizable superpotential term, we generate an inflationary valley along which…
We calculate the spectrum of density fluctuations in models of inflation based on a weakly self-coupled scalar matter field minimally coupled to gravity, and specifically investigate the dependence of the predictions on modifications of the…
We survey a variety of proposals for new physics at high scales that serve to relate the multitude of soft supersymmetry breaking parameters of the MSSM. We focus on models where the new physics results in non-universal soft parameters, in…
A variant of hybrid inflation which is applicable in a wide class of supersymmetric grand unified models and reproduces the observed temperature perturbations of cosmic background radiation with natural values of the parameters is…
Many controlled realizations of chaotic inflation employ pseudo-scalar axions. Pseudo-scalars \phi are naturally coupled to gauge fields through c \phi F \tilde{F}. In the presence of this coupling, gauge field quanta are copiously produced…
We study the parametric amplification of super-Hubble-scale scalar metric fluctuations at the end of inflation in some specific two-field models of inflation, a class of which is motivated by hybrid inflation. We demonstrate that there can…
We demonstrate that cosmological perturbations can undergo amplification by parametric resonance during the preheating period following inflation, even on scales larger than the Hubble radius, without violating causality. A unified…
In theories in which SUSY is broken on a brane separated from the MSSM matter fields, supersymmetry breaking is naturally mediated in a variety of ways. Absent other light fields in the theory, gravity will mediate supersymmetry breaking…
Topologically non-trivial gauge field configurations are an interesting aspect of non-abelian gauge theories. These become particularly important upon quantizing the theory, especially through their effect on the pseudo-scalar spectrum.…
In a class of realistic four and five dimensional supersymmetric grand unified models, the scalar spectral index is found to be $n_s=0.98 (\pm 0.01)$, in excellent agreement with the values determined by several previous experiments and…
A detailed study of the intermediate symmetry breaking scale, via the renormalization group equations, for a three generation heterotic string model arising from the N=2 superconformal construction is reported. The numerical study shows…