Related papers: The primordial structure from Quantum Cosmological…
We clarify the way in which cosmological perturbations of quantum origin, produced during inflation, assume classical properties. Two features play an important role in this process: First, the dynamics of fluctuations which are presently…
Cosmological inflation is a popular paradigm for understanding Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMBR); however, it faces many conceptual challenges. An alternative mechanism to inflation for generating an almost scale-invariant…
The statistical properties of the primordial density perturbations has been considered in the past decade as a powerful probe of the physical processes taking place in the early universe. Within the inflationary paradigm, the properties of…
According to the inflationary scenario for the very early Universe, all inhomogeneities in the Universe are of genuine quantum origin. On the other hand, looking at these inhomogeneities and measuring them, clearly no specific quantum…
Current astronomical observations are successfully explained by the present cosmological paradigm based on the concordance model ($\Lambda_0$CDM + Inflation). However, such a scenario is composed of a heterogeneous mix of ingredients for…
Within the framework of loop quantum cosmology, there exists a semi-classical regime where spacetime may be approximated in terms of a continuous manifold, but where the standard Friedmann equations of classical Einstein gravity receive…
We discuss the challenges of motivating, constructing, and quantizing a canonically normalized inflationary perturbation in spatially curved universes. We show that this has historically proved challenging due to the interaction of…
There is a widespread belief that the classical small inhomogeneities which gave rise to all structures in the Universe through gravitational instability originated from primordial quantum cosmological fluctuations. However, this transition…
Bouncing cosmologies, suggested by String/M-theory, may provide an alternative to standard inflation to account for the origin of inhomogeneities in our universe. The fundamental question regards the correct way to evolve the scalar…
A brief review of the modern state of quantum cosmology is presented as a theory of quantum initial conditions for inflationary scenario. The no-boundary and tunneling states of the Universe are discussed as a possible source of probability…
In this paper we examine the stability of scalar perturbations in nonsingular models which emerge from an interacting vacuum component. The analysis developed in this paper relies on two phenomenological choices for the energy exchange…
In the framework of Loop Quantum Cosmology, we study a cosmological bouncing model with two fields that reproduce the desired features of the primordial power spectra. The model combines the matter-bounce mechanism, that generates…
Cosmological inflation remains to be a unique mechanism of generation of plausible initial conditions in the early universe. In particular, it generates the primordial quasiclassical perturbations with power spectrum determined by the…
A very simple non-singular inflationary model is presented where the unique matter content is a radiation fluid. The model slowly contracts from a very large, almost empty and flat spacetime and realizes a bounce. It is then launched to a…
Several scenarios have been proposed in which primordial perturbations could originate from quantum vacuum fluctuations in a phase corresponding to a collapse phase (in an Einstein frame) preceding the Big Bang. I briefly review three…
Developments in theoretical cosmology in the recent decades show a close connection with particle physics, quantum gravity and unified theories. Answers or hints to many fundamental questions in cosmology like the homogeneity and isotropy…
In a metric variable based Hamiltonian quantization, we give a prescription for constructing semiclassical matter-geometry states for homogeneous and isotropic cosmological models. These "collective" states arise as infinite linear…
By studying some bouncing universe models dominated by a specific class of hydrodynamical fluids, we show that the primordial cosmological perturbations may propagate smoothly through a general relativistic bounce. We also find that the…
The development of dark energy models has stimulated interest to cosmological singularities, which differ from the traditional Big Bang and Big Crunch singularities. We review a broad class of phenomena connected with soft cosmological…
The spatially flat Friedman-Robertson-Walker (FRW) cosmological model with a massless scalar field in loop quantum cosmology admits a description in terms of a completely solvable model. This has been used to prove that: i) the quantum…