Related papers: Simulating first-order phase transition during inf…
No-scale supergravity and the flipped SU(5)$\times$U(1) gauge group provide an ambitious prototype string-inspired scenario for physics below the string scale, which can accommodate the Starobinsky-like inflation favoured by observation…
The theory of General Relativity was established on a spacetime manifold equipped with a metric tensor, $(\mathcal{M}_4,\text{g})$, and the connection on $\mathcal{M}_4$ identified with the Levi-Civita one. Even though there are valid…
Motivated by the idea that inflation occurs at the GUT symmetry breaking scale, in this paper we construct a new class of large field inflaton potentials where the inflaton starts with a power law potential; after initial period of relative…
We study an inflationary scenario where thermal inflation is followed by fast-roll inflation. This is a rather generic possibility based on the effective potentials of spontaneous symmetry breaking in the context of particle physics models.…
This is a short review of string cosmology. We wish to connect string-scale physics as closely as possible to observables accessible to current or near-future experiments. Our possible best hope to do so is a description of inflation in…
I explore various scenarios for the phase transition within neutron-star matter. I do so by generating large model-agnostic ensemble using Gaussian processes, both with and without explicit inclusion of first-order phase transitions…
During preheating after inflation, parametric resonance rapidly generates very large fluctuations of scalar fields. In models where the inflaton field $\phi$ oscillates in a double-well potential and interacts with another scalar field $X$,…
Currently favoured extensions of the Standard Model typically contain `flaton fields' defined as fields with large vacuum expectation values (vevs) and almost flat potentials. If a flaton field is trapped at the origin in the early…
We develop a consistent analytic approach to determine the conditions under which slow roll inflation can arise when the inflaton is the same scalar field that is responsible for the bounce in Loop Quantum Cosmology (LQC). We find that the…
This thesis is dedicated to studying cosmological inflation, which is a period of accelerated expansion in the very early Universe that is required to explain the observed anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background. Inflation, when…
False vacuum decay in quantum mechanical first order phase transitions is a phenomenon with wide implications in cosmology, and presents interesting theoretical challenges. In the standard approach, it is assumed that false vacuum decay…
A first order inflation model where a gauge coupling constant runs as the universe inflates is investigated. This model can solve the graceful-exit problem within Einstein gravity by varying the bubble formation rate. The sufficient…
We explore a new class of supersymmetric models of inflation where the inflaton is realised as a combination of a Higgs field and (gauge non-singlet) matter fields, using a "tribrid" structure of the superpotential. Inflation is associated…
We investigate density perturbations in the chain inflation scenario, where the inflaton undergoes successive tunneling transitions along one field direction. First we show that when the bubble walls associated with such a phase transition…
Inflation models can have an early phase of inflation where the evolution of the inflaton is driven by quantum fluctuations before entering the phase driven by the slope of the scalar field potential. For a Coleman-Weinberg potential this…
We study whether a first-order phase transition at the end of inflation can generate the observed dark matter abundance through bubble collisions. The transition occurs in a spectator scalar sector with an inflaton-dependent effective…
As a contribution to a viable candidate for a standard model of cosmology, we here show that pre-inflationary quantum fluctuations can provide a scenario for the long-sought initial conditions for the inflaton field. Our proposal is based…
The original Starobinsky $R + R^2$ model of inflation is consistent with Planck and other measurements of the CMB, but recent results from the ACT and SPT Collaborations hint that the tilt of scalar perturbations may be in tension with the…
The observed low-energy values of the $SU(3)\times SU(2)\times U(1)$ gauge couplings, extrapolated via the minimal Standard Model Renormalization Group evolution, hint at the exciting possibility of a Grand Unified Theory (GUT) at $M_U \sim…
We investigate chaotic inflation models with two scalar fields, such that one field (the inflaton) rolls while the other is trapped in a false vacuum state. The false vacuum becomes unstable when the inflaton field falls below some critical…