Related papers: Propagator positivity bounds for cosmological corr…
Signatures of heavy particles during inflation are exponentially suppressed by the Boltzmann factor when the masses are far above the Hubble scale. In more realistic scenarios, however, scale-dependent features may change this conventional…
We study cosmological correlators in de Sitter quantum gravity in the limit where $G_N \to 0$. This limit is distinct from a nongravitational QFT because the gravitational constraints still force states and observables to be de Sitter…
We explore the relation between positivity of the energy constraints in conformal field theories and causality in their dual gravity description. Our discussion involves CFTs with different central charges whose description, in the gravity…
Tensor non-Gaussianity represents an important future probe of the physics of inflation. Inspired by recent works, we elaborate further on the possibility of significant primordial tensor non-Gaussianities sourced by extra fields during…
We propose an inflationary scenario inspired by a recent formulation, in terms of coherent states, of non-commutative quantum field theory. We consider the semiclassical Einstein equations, and we exploit the ultraviolet finiteness of the…
In the context of Effective Field Theory, the Hilbert space of states increases in an expanding universe. Hence, the time evolution cannot be unitary. The formation of structure is usually studied using effective field theory techniques. We…
Correlation functions of primordial density fluctuations provide an exciting probe of the physics governing the earliest moments of our Universe. However, the standard approach to compute them is technically challenging. Theoretical…
We study the dynamical evolution of FLRW cosmologies in the presence of a tower of scalar light states and a runaway exponential potential. Some of the attractor solutions have problematic behaviours from the EFT point of view, which we use…
The predictions of inflation are usually defined in terms of equal time in-in correlation functions in an accelerating cosmological background. These same observables exist for quantum field theory in other spacetimes, including flat space.…
In the framework of scalar-tensor theories of gravity, we construct a new kind of cosmological model that conflates inflation and ekpyrosis. During a phase of conflation, the universe undergoes accelerated expansion, but with crucial…
Positivity bounds provide conditions that a consistent UV-completion exists for a quantum field theory. We examine their application to Horndeski gravity models reconstructed from the effective field theory (EFT) of dark energy. This…
Cosmological soft theorems (or consistency relations) provide a powerful probe for the physics of inflation. These relations rely on minimal assumptions and hold very generally. Consequently, any violation of these relations would rule out…
We examine effective field theories (EFTs) with a continuum sector in the presence of gravity. We first explain, via arguments based on central charge and species scale, that an EFT with a free continuum cannot consistently couple to…
In this paper we study both projective and non-projective constraints on four-dimensional gravitational effective fields theories implied from unitarity, causality and crossing, assuming perturbative UV completions in $M_{\rm pl}$. We…
Transforming canonical scalars to the Einstein frame can give a multi-field generalization of pole inflation (namely, a scalar with a divergent kinetic term) at vanishing field-dependent Planck mass. However, to obtain an attractor, the…
We describe a broad class of multi-field inflationary models with spontaneously broken conformal invariance. It generalizes the recently discovered class of cosmological attractors with a single inflaton field. In the new multi-field…
In cosmology, correlation functions on a late-time boundary can arise from both field redefinitions and bulk interactions, which are usually believed to generate distinct results. In this letter, we propose a counterexample showcasing that…
We study finite-coupling effects of QFT on a rigid de Sitter (dS) background taking the $O(N)$ vector model at large $N$ as a solvable example. Extending standard large $N$ techniques to the dS background, we analyze the phase structure and…
We bound EFT coefficients appearing in $2 \to 2$ photon scattering amplitudes in four dimensions. After reviewing unitarity and positivity conditions in this context, we use dispersion relations and crossing symmetry to compute sum rules…
Power-law corrections (having the exponent strictly between 2 and 3) to the Einstein-Hilbert action yield an extended theory of gravity which is consistent with Solar-System tests and properly reproduces the main phases of the Universe…