Related papers: Revisiting Lagrangian Formulation of Stochastic in…
The stochastic inflation program is a framework for understanding the dynamics of a quantum scalar field driving an inflationary phase. Though widely used and accepted, there have over recent years been serious criticisms of this theory. In…
Using the influence functional formalism we show how to derive a generalized Einstein equation in the form of a Langevin equation for the description of the backreaction of quantum fields and their fluctuations on the dynamics of curved…
The Palatini formulation of the Starobinsky model does not yield a propagating scalaron that can assume the role of the inflaton field as in the conventional metric formulation. In the so-called Palatini-${R}^2$ models this role is assumed…
We investigate the origin of non-Markovianity in stochastic inflation and its implications for nonlinear perturbation theory. In the Schwinger--Keldysh formulation, the noise terms sourcing the infrared (IR) Langevin equations are…
Nonminimal coupling of the inflaton field to the Ricci curvature of spacetime is generally unavoidable, and the paradigm of inflation should be generalized by including the corresponding term in the Lagrangian of the inflationary theory.…
We revisit the time evolution of a flat and non-flat direction system during inflation. In order to take into account quantum noises in the analysis, we base on stochastic formalism and solve coupled Langevin equations numerically. We focus…
Treating inflation as an effective theory, we expect the effective Lagrangian to contain higher-dimensional kinetic operators suppressed by the scale of UV physics. When these operators are powers of the inflaton kinetic energy, the scalar…
We point out that inflationary superhorizon fluctuations can be effectively described by a set of equations analogous to those governing a superfluid. This is achieved through a functional Schr\"odinger approach to the evolution of the…
In inflationary cosmological models driven by an inflaton field the origin of the primordial inhomogeneities which are responsible for large scale structure formation are the quantum fluctuations of the inflaton field. These are usually…
We derive the stochastic description of a massless, interacting scalar field in de Sitter space directly from the quantum theory. This is done by showing that the density matrix for the effective theory of the long wavelength fluctuations…
We show that a string-inspired Planck scale modification of general relativity can have observable cosmological effects. Specifically, we present a complete analysis of the inflationary perturbation spectrum produced by a phenomenological…
Coupled, multi-field models of inflation can provide several attractive features unavailable in the case of a single inflaton field. These models have a rich dynamical structure resulting from the interaction of the fields and their…
If inflation is to be considered in an unbiased way, as possibly originating from one of a wide range of underlying theories, then observations need not be simply applied to reconstructing the inflaton potential, V(\phi), or a specific…
Warm inflation is extended from the canonical field to the noncanonical field with a general Lagrangian density having coupling form of kinetic and potential terms. We develop the motion equation of the noncanonical inflaton field, and…
We reinterpret Starobinsky's stochastic inflation as an open quantum system, where short-wavelength modes act as the environment for long-wavelength modes. Using the Schwinger-Keldysh formalism, we systematically trace out the environment…
We consider the scale-invariant inflationary model studied in [1]. The Lagrangian includes all the scale-invariant operators that can be built with combinations of $R$, $R^2$ and one scalar field. The equations of motion show that the…
We study the linear perturbations of multi-field inflationary models governed by a Lagrangian which is a general function of the scalar fields and of a global kinetic term combining their spacetime gradients with an arbitrary field space…
We extend the theory of cosmological perturbations to the case when the ``matter'' Lagrangian is an arbitrary function of the scalar field and its first derivatives. In particular, this extension provides a unified description of known…
While moving down the potential on its classical slow roll trajectory, the inflaton field is subject to quantum jumps, which take it up or down the potential at random. In "stochastic inflation", the impact of these quantum jumps is modeled…
Although the paradigm of inflation has been extensively studied to demonstrate how macroscopic inhomogeneities in our universe originate from quantum fluctuations, most of the established literature ignores the crucial role that…