Related papers: Probing inflationary moduli space with gravitation…
Matrix inflation, or M-flation, is a string theory motivated inflationary model with three scalar field matrices and gauge fields in the adjoint representation of the $\mathbf{U}(N)$ gauge group. One of these $3N^2$ scalars appears as the…
String cosmology models predict a cosmic background of gravitational waves produced during a period of dilaton-driven inflation. I describe the background, present astrophysical and cosmological bounds on it, and discuss in some detail how…
We study the properties of the gravitational wave (GW) signals produced by first order phase transitions during the inflation era. We show that the power spectrum of the GW oscillates with its wave number. This signal can be observed…
The first year of observations by the Planck satellite mission shows that the cosmic microwave background (CMB) fluctuations are consistent with gaussian statistics in the primordial perturbations, a key prediction of the simplest models of…
We consider the inflationary universe with a spectator scalar field coupled to a $U(1)$ gauge field and calculate curvature perturbation and gravitational waves (GWs). We find that the sourced GWs can be larger than the one from vacuum…
Stochastic gravitational waves can be induced from the primordial curvature perturbations generated during inflation, through scalar-tensor mode coupling at the second order of cosmological perturbation theory. Here we discuss a model of…
Inspired by the chromo-natural inflation model of Adshead&Wyman, we reshape its scalar content to relax the tension with current observational bounds. Besides an inflaton, the setup includes a spectator sector in which an axion and SU(2)…
We study the quantum evolution of the early universe, its semi-classical analogue together with inflationary regime, in view of a generalized modified theory of gravity. The action is built by supplementing the non-minimally coupled…
We propose a simple but effective mechanism to realize an inflationary early universe consistent with the observed WMAP, Planck and/or BICEP2 data, which would be incorporated in various supersymmetric models of elementary particles…
The (large-scale) structures we observe in the Universe are classical, but within the inflationary scenario they do originate from quantum fluctuations. This leads to the question: ''How did this quantum-to-classical transition occur?''. A…
In this paper we consider an inflating universe with long straight cosmic string along z-axis. We show that the effect of cosmic string can be taken as a perturbation on the background of FRW metric. Then by doing cosmological perturbations…
Recent measurements of temperature fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) indicate that the Universe is flat and that large-scale structure grew via gravitational infall from primordial adiabatic perturbations. Both of these…
String theory abounds with light scalar fields (the dilaton and various moduli) which create a host of observational problems, and notably some serious cosmological difficulties similar to the ones associated with the Polonyi field in the…
Phase transitions during inflation can generate a stochastic gravitational-wave background that probes primordial physics. We study the detectability and parameter reconstruction of such a signal with a space-based gravitational-wave…
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,…
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…
The motion of a pseudo-scalar field $X$ during inflation naturally induces a significant amplification of the gauge fields to which it is coupled. The amplified gauge fields can source characteristic scalar and tensor primordial…
The slow-roll inflation for a single scalar field that couples to the Gauss-Bonnet (GB) term represents an important higher-order curvature correction inspired by string theory. With the arrival of the era of precision cosmology, it is…
We propose new classes of inflation models based on the modular symmetry, where the modulus field $\tau$ serves as the inflaton. We establish a connection between modular inflation and modular stabilization, wherein the modulus field rolls…
We investigate density perturbations generated through modulated reheating while inflation is driven by a conformally coupled scalar field. A large running of the spectral index is obtained, which reflects the basic nature of conformal…