Related papers: Kination cosmology from scalar fields and gravitat…
The primordial irreducible gravitational-wave background due to quantum vacuum tensor fluctuations produced during inflation spans a large range of frequencies with an almost scale-invariant spectrum but is too low to be detected by the…
Rotations of an axion field in field space provide a natural origin for an era of kination domination, where the energy density is dominated by the kinetic term of the axion field, preceded by an early era of matter domination. Remarkably,…
The production of a stochastic background of gravitational waves is a fundamental prediction of any cosmological inflationary model. The features of such a signal encode unique information about the physics of the Early Universe and beyond,…
In this talk, I review briefly a scenario for the evolution of a string-inspired cosmological model, in which condensates of primordial gravitational waves (GW), formed at the very early eras after the Big Bang, are considered responsible…
Upcoming searches for the stochastic background of inflationary gravitational waves (GWs) offer the exciting possibility to probe the evolution of our Universe prior to Big Bang nucleosynthesis. In this spirit, we explore the sensitivity of…
In the pre-reheating era, following cosmic inflation and preceding radiation domination, the energy density may be dominated by an oscillating massive scalar condensate, such as is the case for quadratic chaotic inflation. We have found in…
This paper is the third in a series of theorems which state how cosmological observations can provide evidence for an early phase of acceleration in the universe. Previous theorems demonstrated that the observed power spectrum for scalar…
We study the production, spectrum and detectability of gravitational waves in models of the early Universe where first order phase transitions occur during inflation. We consider all relevant sources. The self-consistency of the scenario…
Assuming that inflation is followed by a phase where the energy density of the Universe is dominated by a component with a general equation of state, we evaluate the spectrum of primordial gravitational waves induced in the…
There is a growing expectation that the gravitational wave detectors will start probing the stochastic gravitational wave backgrounds in the following years. We explore the spectral shapes of gravitational waves induced to second order by…
The reheating of the universe after hybrid inflation proceeds through the nucleation and subsequent collision of large concentrations of energy density in the form of bubble-like structures moving at relativistic speeds. This generates a…
We discuss the effects of cosmic phase transition on the spectrum of primordial gravitational waves generated during inflation. The energy density of the scalar condensation responsible for the phase transition may become sizable at the…
I review a string-inspired cosmological model, with gravitational anomalies present at very early epochs, which includes a totally antisymmetric torsion, that in (3+1)-dimensions is equivalent to a pseudoscalar (Kalb-Ramond, string-model…
Based on the minimal $U(1)_X$ extended Standard Model, we explore cosmic inflation where the $U(1)_X$ Higgs field serves as the inflaton. We demonstrate that a stiff era with an equation of state $w > 1/3$ can emerge during the inflaton's…
The epoch when the Universe had a temperature higher than a GeV is long before any time at which we have reliable observations constraining the cosmological evolution. For example, the occurrence of a second burst of inflation (sometimes…
The original axion natural inflation model predicts a tensor-to-scalar ratio exceeding experimental limits. Conversely, in aligned axion inflation, inflation can proceed along trajectories emerging from near a saddle point of the two-field…
The reheating of the universe after hybrid inflation proceeds through the nucleation and subsequent collision of large concentrations of energy density in the form of bubble-like structures moving at relativistic speeds. This generates a…
Gravitational waves signatures from dynamical scalar field configurations provide a compelling observational window on the early universe. Here we identify intriguing connections between dark matter and scalars fields that emit…
An important prediction of inflation is the production of a primordial stochastic gravitational wave background. Observing this background is challenging due to the weakness of the signal and the simultaneous presence of an astrophysical…
We investigate the potential of gravitational-wave background searches to constrain cosmic histories characterised by a stiff equation of state, preceded by a period of matter domination. Such a scenario leads to a characteristic peak in…