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We show how we can implement chaotic inflation in the context of supergravity by conveniently selecting the functional form of a strong enough non-minimal coupling between the inflaton and the Ricci scalar curvature. The procedure can be…
The discrepancy between the muon $g-2$ measurement and the Standard Model prediction points to new physics around or below the weak scale. It is tantalizing to consider the loop effects of a heavy axion (in the general sense, also known as…
Theories with a non-minimal coupling between the space-time curvature and matter fields introduce an extra force due to the non-conservation of the matter energy momentum. In the present work the theoretical consistency of such couplings is…
We study the prescriptions for the coupling constant of a scalar field to the Ricci curvature of spacetime in specific gravity and scalar field theories. The results are applied to the most popular inflationary scenarios of the universe;…
We revisit the problem of defining non-minimal gravity in the first order formalism. Specializing to scalar-tensor theories, which may be disguised as `higher-derivative' models with the gravitational Lagrangians that depend only on the…
We study inflationary models based on a non-minimal coupling of a singlet scalar to gravity, focussing on the preheating dynamics and the unitarity issues in this regime. If the scalar does not have significant couplings to other fields,…
We study a variant of the Chromo-Natural Inflation (CNI) mechanism in which the inflaton interacts only gravitationally with the CNI fields. Integrating out all the non-dynamical scalar fields of the model results in a coupling between the…
A class of generalized non-minimal coupling theories is investigated, in search of scaling attractors able to provide an accelerated expansion at the present time. Solutions are found in the strong coupling regime and when the coupling…
We investigate the impact of a non-minimal coupling of the scalar field with gravity in inflationary models, where a small coupling is allowed. As a concrete example, we consider the Witten-O'Raifeartaigh model, where, in line with other…
We consider the coupling of fermions to the three-dimensional noncommutative $CP^{N-1}$ model. In the case of minimal coupling, although the infrared behavior of the gauge sector is improved, there are dangerous (quadratic) infrared…
We show that the required high quality of the Peccei-Quinn symmetry can be naturally explained in the aligned QCD axion models where the QCD axion arises from multiple axions with decay constants much smaller than the axion window, e.g.,…
We make a detailed study of the unification of gauge couplings in the MSSM with large extra dimensions. We find some scenarios where unification can be achieved (with the strong coupling constant at the Z mass within one standard deviation…
We investigate the scenario where the Standard Model is extended with classical scale invariance, which is broken by chiral symmetry breaking and confinement in a new strongly-coupled gauge theory that resembles QCD. The Standard Model…
We explore a novel cosmological model based on coupled fields in the framework of scalar tensor theories, considering the specific interplay between gravity and scalar fields. The model further extends a recent axion-dilaton system by…
A massive gauge invariant formulation for scalar ($\phi$) and antisymmetric ($C_{mnp}$) fields with a topological coupling, which provides a mass for the axion field, is considered. The dual and local equivalence with the non-gauge…
We present a brief overview of axion models associated to anomalous abelian (gauge) symmetries, discussing their main phenomenological features. Among these, the mechanism of vacuum misalignment introduced at the QCD and at the electroweak…
We study structure formation in non-minimally coupled dark energy models, where there is a coupling in the Lagrangian between a quintessence scalar field and gravity via the Ricci scalar. We consider models with a range of different…
We show that, as a result of non-linear self-interactions, it is feasible, at least in light of the bounds coming from terrestrial tests of gravity, measurements of the Casimir force and those constraints imposed by the physics of compact…
The prediction of the strong coupling constant in grand unified theories is reviewed, first in the standard model, then in the supersymmetric version. Various corrections are considered. The predictions in both supergravity-induced and…
We investigate first-order vacuum phase transitions in the presence of a non-minimally coupled scalar field starting with the coupling effect on the initial dynamics of phase transitions by defining an effective potential for the scalar…