Related papers: Running primordial perturbations: Inflationary Dyn…
Oscillons are massive, long-lived, localized excitations of a scalar field. We show that in a large class of well-motivated single-field models, inflation is followed by self-resonance, leading to copious oscillon generation and a lengthy…
In inflation cosmologies, cosmic structure develops through the gravitational instability of the inevitable quantum noise in primordial scalar fields. I show how the acceleration of the universe defines the shape of the primordial spectrum…
We propose a mechanism for generating an inflationary phase in the early universe without resorting to any type of scalar field(s). Instead, this accelerated expansion is driven by a dynamical "cosmological constant" in the framework of…
We develop a quantum-cosmological framework in which the inflationary potential emerges from the structure of the wave function of the universe rather than being postulated. Starting from the Wheeler-DeWitt equation for a flat…
In the standard slow-roll inflationary cosmology, quantum fluctuations in a single field, the inflaton, generate approximately Gaussian primordial density perturbations. At present, the bispectrum and trispectrum of the density…
We present uniform rate inflation in a modified $f(T, \mathcal{T}) $ gravity. It is found that early inflation can be realized even with a scalar field field with a quadratic potential and a negative cosmological constant. We construct…
I construct a class of single small field models of inflation that can predict an observable gravitational wave signal in the cosmic microwave background anisotropoies, contrary to popular wisdom. The spectral index, its running, the tensor…
We propose a method to extract predictions from quantum cosmology for inflation that can be confronted with observations. Employing the tunneling boundary condition in quantum geometrodynamics, we derive a probability distribution for the…
(abridged) We explore the statistical properties of non-linear cosmic structures in a flat $\Lambda$CDM cosmology in which the index of the primordial power spectrum for scalar perturbations is allowed to depend on the scale. Within the…
This is a review of particle-theory models of inflation, and of their predictions for the primordial density perturbation that is thought to be the origin of structure in the Universe. It contains mini-reviews of the relevant observational…
In this thesis we will primarily demonstrate how additional scalar degrees of freedom - which are motivated from many high-energy embeddings - open up new observational windows onto the physics of inflation. We construct a Bayesian…
Recent detection of $B$-mode polarization induced from tensor perturbations by the BICEP2 experiment implies so-called large field inflation, where an inflaton field takes super-Planckian expectation value during inflation, at a high energy…
We develop a consistent analytic approach to determine the conditions under which slow roll inflation can arise when the inflaton is the same scalar field that is responsible for the bounce in Loop Quantum Cosmology (LQC). We find that the…
Supersolid inflation is a class of inflationary theories that simultaneously breaks time and space reparameterization invariance during inflation, with distinctive features for the dynamics of cosmological fluctuations. We investigate…
We construct a class of single small field models of inflation that can predict, contrary to popular wisdom, an observable gravitational wave signal in the cosmic microwave background anisotropies. The spectral index, its running, the…
We derive some new constraints on single-field inflation from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe 3-year data combined with the Sloan Luminous Red Galaxy survey. Our work differs from previous analyses by focusing only on the…
We consider the stochastic gravitational wave background induced by arbitrary source fields that are amplified during cosmological inflation. The associated tensor spectral index is shown to be given, under minimal assumptions, by a simple…
Inflation is a bold and expansive extension of the Standard Cosmology. It holds the promise to extend our understanding of the Universe to within 10^{-32}sec of the big bang and answer most of the pressing questions in cosmology. Its…
For simple inflationary models, we provide a consistent and complete scheme by which the macro-physical details of early universe inflation may be determined explicitly from the underlying micro-physical theory. We examine inflationary…
The cosmic microwave background can measure the inflaton potential only if inflation lasts sufficiently long before the time of horizon crossing of observable fluctuations, such that non-linear effects in the time evolution of Green's…