Related papers: Stringy constraints on primordial electromagnetic …
String theory avoids the ultraviolet infinities that arise in trying to quantize gravity. It is also more predictive than conventional quantum field theory, one aspect of this being the way that it contributed to the emergence of the…
We describe a simple mechanism that can lead to inflation within string-based brane-world scenarios. The idea is to start from a supersymmetric configuration with two parallel static Dp-branes, and slightly break the supersymmetry…
We propose a stringy version of the old inflation scenario which does not require any slow-roll inflaton potential and is based on a specific example of string compatification with warped metric. Our set-up admits the presence of…
We consider the spectra of excitations around diagonal and intersecting D-brane configurations on tori. These configurations are described by constant curvature connections in a dual gauge theory description. The low-energy string…
The string effective action at tree level contains, in its bosonic sector, the Einstein-Hilbert term, the dilaton, and the axion, besides scalar and gauge fields coming from the Ramond-Ramond sector. The reduction to four dimensions brings…
It is shown that Einstein gravity tends to modify the electric and magnetic fields appreciably at distances of the order of the Compton wavelength. At that distance the gravitational field becomes spin dominated rather than mass dominated.…
The electromagnetic response of topological insulators is governed by axion electrodynamics, which features a topological magnetoelectric term in the Maxwell equations. As a consequence magnetic fields become the source of electric fields…
We show that an axionlike field coupled to a new confining gauge group can generate the primordial density perturbation in the post-inflation universe. The axion decay constant and strong coupling scale are uniquely determined by…
String theory models of axion monodromy inflation exhibit scalar potentials which are quadratic for small values of the inflaton field and evolve to a more complicated function for large field values. Oftentimes the large field behaviour is…
We analyze observational constraints on the parameter space of tachyonic inflation with a Gaussian potential and discuss some predictions of this scenario. As was shown by Kofman and Linde, it is extremely problematic to achieve the…
The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) constraints on string inspired ''brane inflation'' are investigated. Here, the inflaton field is interpreted as the distance between two branes placed in a flux-enriched background geometry…
We study an inflationary model developed by Kaloper and Sorbo, in which the inflaton is an axion with a sub-Planckian decay constant, whose potential is generated by mixing with a topological 4-form field strength. This gives a 4d…
Certain inflationary models can feature periods of preheating - an era preceding reheating during which parametric resonance triggers an exponential production of bosons. This non-perturbative process can have significant impact on the…
The density perturbation during inflation seeds the large scale structure. We consider both new inflation-type and chaotic inflation-type potentials in the framework of Einstein-Brans-Dicke gravity. The density perturbation gives strong…
One possibility for identifying the inflaton in the framework of string theory is that it is a $D$-brane modulus. This option involves a specific, non-canonical form of the kinetic energy -- the Dirac-Born-Infeld action. This note…
We show that certain excitations of the F-string/D3-brane system can be shown to obey Neumann boundary conditions by considering Born-Infeld dynamics of the F-string (viewed as a 3-brane cylindrically wrapped on an $S_2$). Excitations which…
We investigate pair creation by an electric field in four-dimensional de Sitter space. The expectation value of the induced current is computed, using the method of adiabatic regularization. Under strong electric fields the behavior of the…
When the gauge fields have derivative couplings to scalars, like in the case of the relativistic theory of Van der Waals (or Casimir-Polder) interactions, conformal invariance is broken but the magnetic and electric susceptibilities are not…
We study the CMB observables in axion monodromy inflation. These well-motivated scenarios for inflation in string theory have monomial potentials over super-Planckian field ranges, with superimposed sinusoidal modulations from instanton…
The creation of large scale magnetic fields is studied in an inflationary universe where electrodynamics is assumed to be nonlinear. After inflation ends electrodynamics becomes linear and thus the description of reheating and the…