Related papers: Is Planckian discreteness observable in cosmology?
We argue that the discrepancy between the Planck mass scale and the observed value of the cosmological constant can be largely attenuated if those quantities are understood as a result of effective, and thus scale-dependent, couplings. We…
The concept of early Universe inflation resolves several problems of hot Big Bang theory and quantitatively explains the origin of the inhomogeneities in the present Universe. However, it is not possible to arrange inflation in a scalar…
Observations indicate that the universe is effectively flat, but they do not rule out a closed universe. The role of positive curvature is negligible at late times, but can be crucial in the early universe. In particular, positive curvature…
Inflationary cosmology has, in the last few years,received a strong dose of support from observations. The fact that the fluctuation spectrum can be extracted from the inflationary scenario through an analysis that involves quantum field…
In this approach to discrete quantum gravity the basic structural element is a covariant causal set ($c$-causet). The geometry of a $c$-causet is described by a shell-sequence that determines the discrete gravity of a universe. In this…
In the context of inflationary models with a pre-inflationary stage, in which the Einstein equations are obeyed, the weak energy condition is satisfied, and spacetime topology is trivial, we argue that homogeneity on super-Hubble scales…
In scale-invariant models of fundamental physics, mass scales are generated by spontaneous symmetry breaking. In this work, we study inflation in scale-invariant $R^2$ gravity, in which the Planck mass is generated by a scalar field, which…
We show how, by considering the cumulative effect of tiny quantum gravitational fluctuations over very large distances, it may be possible to: ($a$) reconcile nucleosynthesis bounds on the density parameter of the Universe with the…
Does inflation provide a compelling explanation for why the universe is so large, so flat, and so old, and a predictive theory of density perturbations? In this brief contribution (based on the role of the author as moderator of the…
Quantum fluctuations of scalar fields during inflation could determine the very large-scale structure of the universe. In the case of general scalar-tensor gravity theories these fluctuations lead to the diffusion of fundamental constants…
We revisit an inflationary scenario in which primordial inhomogeneities arise from a quantum collapse, a stochastic mechanism described in the context of quantum collapse theories in its continuous version and within semiclassical gravity.…
It is sometimes argued that observation of tensor modes from inflation would provide the first evidence for quantum gravity. However, in the usual inflationary formalism, also the scalar modes involve quantised metric perturbations. We…
We study a generality of an inflationary scenario by integrating the Einstein equations numerically in a plane-symmetric spacetime. We consider the inhomogeneous spacetimes due to (i) localized gravitational waves with a positive…
We review a few topics in Planck-scale physics, with emphasis on possible manifestations in relatively low energy. The selected topics include quantum fluctuations of spacetime, their cumulative effects, uncertainties in energy-momentum…
In the ``natural inflation'' model, the inflaton potential is periodic. We show that Planck scale physics may induce corrections to the inflaton potential, which is also periodic with a greater frequency. Such high frequency corrections…
Cosmology in extended theories of gravity is considered assuming the Palatini variational principle, for which the metric and connection are independent variables. The field equations are derived to linear order in perturbations about the…
The physical history of the Universe is completed by including the quantum planckian and trans-planckian phase before Inflation in the Standard Model of the Universe in agreement with observations. A new quantum precursor phase appears…
Cosmology is nowadays going through a true revolution in the quantity and quality of observations that are capable of providing crucial information about the origin and evolution of the universe. In the first years of the next millenium we…
We present a model based on the idea that Planck-scale effects may produce a small explicit breaking of global symmetries. The model contains a new complex scalar field $\Psi$, charged under a certain global U(1) symmetry, interacting with…
By making use of a class of steep exponential type of potentials, which has been recently used to describe quintessential inflation, we show how a unified picture for both inflation, dark energy and dark matter can emerge entirely through…