Related papers: Viable bounce from non-minimal inflation
If a coupling between the inflaton and the Gauss-Bonnet term is introduced, many models of inflation that were ruled out by the most recent Planck data can be made viable again. The predictions for the scalar spectral index and…
Slow-roll inflation is a successful paradigm. However we find that even a small coupling of the inflaton to other light fields can dramatically alter the dynamics and predictions of inflation. As an example, the inflaton can generically…
If the spatial sections of the Universe are positively curved, extrapolating the inflationary stage backward in time inevitably leads to a classical bounce. This simple scenario, non-singular and free of exotic physics, deserves to be…
In this work we study slow-roll inflation for a vector-tensor model with massive vector fields non-minimally coupled to gravity. The model under consideration has arbitrary parameters for each geometrical coupling. Taking into account a…
In the standard inflationary paradigm the inhomogeneities observed in the CMB arise from quantum fluctuations of an initially homogeneous and isotropic vacuum state. This picture suffers from two well-known weaknesses. First, it assumes…
During eternal inflation, a landscape of vacua can be populated by the nucleation of bubbles. These bubbles inevitably collide, and collisions sometimes displace the field into a new minimum in a process known as a classical transition. In…
In this Thesis by publication, we cover both phenomenological and theoretical approaches to the study of inflation: from model-independent parametrizations to modifications of gravity. In a review style, we provide a short introduction to…
The CMB map provided by the Planck project constrains the value of the ratio of tensor-to-scalar perturbations, namely $r$, to be smaller than $0.11$ (95% CL). This bound rules out the simplest models of inflation. However, recent data from…
We propose a model for early universe cosmology without the need for fundamental scalar fields. Cosmic acceleration and phenomenologically viable reheating of the universe results from a series of energy transitions, where during each…
We study constant roll inflation systematically. This is a regime, in which the slow roll approximation can be violated. It has long been thought that this approximation is necessary for agreement with observations. However, recently it was…
We investigate the cosmology of a class of model with noncanonical scalar field and matter in an anisotropic time dependent background. Writing the Einstein Equations in terms of dimensionless dynamical variables appropriately defined for…
We consider slow-roll inflation for a single scalar field with an arbitrary potential and an arbitrary nonminimal coupling to the Gauss-Bonnet term. By introducing a combined hierarchy of Hubble and Gauss-Bonnet flow functions, we…
Anisotropic inflation is an interesting model with an U(1) gauge field and it predicts the statistical anisotropy of the curvature perturbation characterized by a parameter $g_*$. However, we find that the background gauge field does not…
We investigate the cosmic inflation within a class of the scalar-tensor model with the scalar-dependent non-minimal kinetic couplings. The inflationary dynamical potential will be applied. Using the slow-roll approximation, we compute…
In single-field, slow-roll inflationary models, scalar and tensorial (Gaussian) perturbations are both characterized by a zero mean and a non-zero variance. In position space, the corresponding variance of those fields diverges in the…
The simplest possible classical model leading to a cosmological bounce is examined in the light of the non-Gaussianities it can generate. Concentrating solely on the transition between contraction and expansion, and assuming initially…
We study the generation of primordial perturbations in a (single-field) slow-roll inflationary universe. In momentum space, these (Gaussian) perturbations are characterized by a zero mean and a non-zero variance $\Delta^2(k, t)$. However,…
If cosmological inflation is due to a slowly rolling single inflation field taking trans-Planckian values as suggested by the BICEP2 measurement of primordial tensor modes in CMB, embedding inflation into the Standard Model challenges…
In the recent past there have been many attempts to associate the generation of primordial magnetic seed fields with the inflationary era, but with limited success. We thus take a different approach by using a model for nonsingular bouncing…
In previous work, two of us have proposed a model of inflationary magnetogenesis based on a rolling auxiliary field able both to account for the magnetic fields inferred by the (non) observation of gamma-rays from blazars, and to start the…