Related papers: Inflection-point Inflation and Dark Matter Redux
We discuss inflaton decays and reheating in no-scale Starobinsky-like models of inflation, calculating the effective equation-of-state parameter, $w$, during the epoch of inflaton decay, the reheating temperature, $T_{\rm reh}$, and the…
We explore the production of thermal dark matter (DM) candidates (WIMPs, SIMPs, ELDERs and Cannibals) during cosmic reheating. Assuming a general parametrization for the scaling of the inflaton energy density and the standard model (SM)…
We consider observational constraints and fine-tuning issues in a renormalizable model of inflection point inflation, with two independent parameters. We derive constraints on the parameter space of this model arising from the WMAP 7-year…
Several models of inflection point inflation with the volume modulus as the inflaton are investigated. Non-perturbative superpotentials containing two gaugino condensation terms or one such term with threshold corrections are considered. It…
We propose a model for cosmic inflation which is based on an effective description of strongly interacting, nonsupersymmetric matter within the framework of dynamical abelian projection and centerization. The underlying gauge symmetry is…
With the growing consensus on simple power law inflation models not being favored by the PLANCK observation, dynamics for the non-standard form of the inflaton potential gain significant interest in the recent past. In this paper, we…
Dark matter and cosmic inflation represent two of the major puzzles in cosmology. They are typically addressed by introducing separate fields with independent dynamics. On the other hand, extra dimensions might play an important role for…
We propose an inflationary scenario where the inflaton field is non-minimally coupled to spacetime curvature and inflation is driven by a vacuum energy symmetry breaking potential without specifying \emph{a priori} whether the inflaton…
In this paper, a cosmological solution to Mimetic Dark Matter (MDM) for an exponential potential is provided. Then, a solution for the $0-i$ perturbed Einstein's differential equation of MDM is obtained based on an exponential potential…
A safe way to reheat the universe, in models of natural and quadratic inflation, is through shift symmetric couplings between the inflaton $\phi$ and the Standard Model (SM), since they do not generate loop corrections to the potential…
Motivated by the modified gravity theories $F(R)\neq R$ and inflationary physics, we first propose and investigate an inflation model in a scaled gravity $F(R)=R\,+\beta R$, where $\beta $ is a dimensionless scaling parameter. The latter is…
We summarize three recent efforts to constrain the first few moments of cosmic creation before and during the epoch of inflation. We consider two means to explain a slight dip in the power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background for…
In this paper we study the production of Primordial Black Holes (PBHs) from inflation in order to explain the Dark Mater (DM) in the Universe. The evaluation of the fractional PBHs abundance to DM is sensitive to the value of the threshold…
We investigate how inflation model selection is affected by the presence of additional free-streaming relativistic degrees of freedom, i.e. dark radiation. We perform a full Bayesian analysis of both inflation parameters and cosmological…
Post-inflationary reheating is a widely discussed mechanism for non-thermal production of dark matter (DM). In this scenario the momentum distribution of the produced DM particles is usually taken to be the one obtained at reheating,…
We unify one of the most widely studied frameworks to explain the hierarchical structure of the flavor sector in the Standard Model, the Froggatt-Nielsen mechanism, with cosmic inflation. We propose that the complex scalar field, the…
Inflation generally assumes a field with nonzero potential that leads to inflationary expansion happening at arbitrarily early times. We demonstrate potentially observable consequences of inflation with a finite initial time in a model in…
We present a new mechanism for generating the observed dark matter energy density, through resonant production of vector dark matter during inflation. Resonant amplification of the vector dark matter is achieved through Mathieu…
Flat directions in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) can become unstable due to radiative corrections, and the global minimum of the (zero temperature) potential can lie at large values of the squark and/or slepton fields.…
We clarify classical inflaton models by considering them as effective field theories `a la Ginzburg-Landau. In this approach, the WMAP statement excluding the pure phi^4 potential implies the presence of an inflaton mass term at the scale m…