Related papers: Recalibrating Inflation: Insights from Starobinsky…
We have found numerically initial conditions in the $(R, H)$ plane leading to a successful Starobinsky inflation in $R+R^2$ gravity for a isotropic metrics with positive spatial curvature. Trajectories can reach inflation regime either…
The Starobinsky model of cosmological inflation in four spacetime dimensions is reviewed with the emphasis on impact of quantum gravity corrections. As a specific example of the quantum corrections, the Grisaru-Zanon quartic curvature terms…
Starobinsky inflation is an attractive, fundamental model to explain the Planck measurements, and its higher-order extension may allow us to probe quantum gravity effects. We show that future CMB data combined with the 21cm intensity map…
Since viable $f(R)$ gravity models must reconcile early-universe inflation with late-time acceleration, we specifically study the dynamical behavior of such a theory during the matter-dominated to dark-energy-dominated transition epoch. By…
Most of the information on our cosmos stems from either late-time observations or the imprint of early-time inhomogeneities on the cosmic microwave background. We explore to what extent early modifications of gravity, which become…
Starting from parametrization of scalar perturbations generated during inflation in terms of $e$--fold $N$ and using an approach recently developed by Starobinsky, dubbed "direct smooth reconstruction", we show that, in the slow--roll…
In this paper we present cosmological constraints on several well-known $f(R)$ models, but also on a new class of models that are variants of the Hu-Sawicki one of the form $f(R)=R-\frac{2\Lambda}{1+b\;y(R,\Lambda)}$, that interpolate…
The supersymmetric extension of "Starobinsky" $R+\alpha R^2$ models of inflation is particularly simple in the "new minimal" formalism of supergravity, where the inflaton has no scalar superpartners. This paper is devoted to matter…
Starobinsky's $R+\alpha R^2$ inflation provides a compelling one-parameter inflationary model that is supported by current cosmological observations. However, at the same order in spacetime derivatives as the $R^2$ term, an effective theory…
We examine some inflationary models based on modifications of gravity in the light of Planck 2015 data, such as the generalised Chaplygin inspired inflation, models based in $N=1$ supergravity and braneworld scenarios. We also show that,…
In this work we aim to provide a new parametrization of power-law $F(R)$ gravity inflation framework in the Jordan frame. It is known in the literature that the power-law $F(R)$ gravity inflation of the form $F(R)=R+\beta R^n$ is non-viable…
We show that the Starobinsky inflation model based on $R^2$ gravity has a special feature that it provides a unique scalaron-two-graviton vertex with a coupling proportional to $1/M_P$. In this model stochastic gravitational waves are…
We show that a new class of helical phase inflation models can be simply realized in minimal supergravity, wherein the inflaton is the phase component of a complex field and its potential admits a deformed helicoid structure. We find a new…
We compute corrections to the inflationary potential due to conformally coupled non-relativistic matter. We find that under certain conditions of the matter coupling, inflation may be interrupted abruptly. We display this in the…
We argue that the Starobinsky model of inflation, realised via an $R^2$ term in the Lagrangian, can originate from quantum effects due to a tower of light species. By means of two separate arguments, we show how this implies that the scale…
We investigate gravitational reheating in the Starobinsky model in the Jordan frame, where inflation is driven by an $R^2$ modification of gravity with no explicit inflaton field. In this description, reheating proceeds exclusively through…
We provide a systematic and updated discussion of a research line carried out by our group over the last few years, in which gravity is modified at cosmological distances by the introduction of nonlocal terms, assumed to emerge at an…
The recent measurements of Cosmic Microwave Background temperature and polarization anisotropies made by the Planck satellite have provided impressive confirmation of the $\Lambda$CDM cosmological model. However interesting hints of slight…
Motivated by the recent observation of the B-mode signal in the cosmic microwave background by BICEP2, we stuty the Starobinsky-type inflation model in the framework of old-minimal supergravity, where the inflaton field in the original…
Starobinsky described an inflationary scenario in which quantum corrections to vacuum Einstein equations drive the inflation. The quantum cosmology of the model is studied by solving the Wheeler-DeWitt equation. A connection between…