Related papers: Phase-resolved field-space distance bounds in ekpy…
The main difficulties in constructing a viable early Universe bouncing model are: to bypass the observational and theoretical \emph{no-go} theorem, to construct a stable non-singular bouncing phase and perhaps, the major concern of it is to…
The results from Planck2015, when combined with earlier observations from WMAP, ACT, SPT and other experiments, were the first observations to disfavor the "classic" inflationary paradigm. To satisfy the observational constraints,…
The scalar field is considered to have dominated the early Universe. One subtle yet crucial requirement of this assumption is that the solution must be highly stable, i.e., indifferent to any initial conditions because there are no favored…
Scalar fields in theories of gravity often inhabit a moduli space of vacua, and coherent spatial or temporal variations in their expectation values can produce measurable gravitational effects. Such variations are expected in contexts…
Loop quantum cosmology with a scalar field is known to be closely linked with an inflationary phase. In this article, we study probabilistic predictions for the duration of slow-roll inflation, by assuming a minimalist massive scalar field…
The recently measured cutoff, k_min=[4.34(+/-)0.50]/r_cmb (with r_cmb the comoving distance to the last scattering surface), in the fluctuation spectrum of the cosmic microwave background, appears to disfavor slow-roll inflation and the…
We explore the inflationary phase of a scalar field with a kinetic term non-minimally coupled to gravity. We find that one of the slow-roll conditions is naturally consequence of the equation of motion of the scalar field. Thus, slow-roll…
Some recent studies based on numerical relativity simulations claim that slow contraction/ekpyrosis is strongly preferred over inflation as the smoothing mechanism that brought the universe into the homogeneous, isotropic and flat state we…
In this paper, by establishing a Brans-Dicke (BD) cosmology by means of a deformed phase space, in the absence of any scalar potential, cosmological constant and ordinary matter, we show that it is feasible to overcome obstacles reported in…
We present a stable cosmological model of a closed universe in the presence of conventional scalar field. The stability of the model and absence of singularity is ensured by spatial curvature without the need for additional peculiar matter.…
During inflation, there is a preferred reference frame in which the expansion of the background spacetime is spatially isotropic. In contrast to Minkowski spacetime, observables can depend on the velocity of the system with respect to this…
We consider bouncing cosmologies in which an ekpyrotic contraction phase with w >> 1 is followed by a bouncing phase with w < -1 that violates the null energy condition. The bouncing phase, induced by ghost condensation, is designed to…
We demonstrate that quantum entanglement between primordial gravitons in dynamically decoupled gravitational sectors can parametrically enhance the tensor power spectrum during inflation. Unlike standard mechanisms relying on classical…
We derive the general formulae for the the scalar and tensor spectral tilts to the second order for the inflationary models with non-minimally derivative coupling without taking the high friction limit. The non-minimally kinetic coupling to…
Ekpyrotic models and their cyclic extensions solve the standard cosmological flatness, horizon and homogeneity puzzles by postulating a slowly contracting phase of the universe prior to the big bang. This ekpyrotic phase also manages to…
We revisit the status of hybrid inflation in the light of Planck and recent BICEP2 results, taking care of possible transient violations of the slow-roll conditions as the field passes from the large field to the vacuum dominated phase. The…
We construct explicit models of classical primordial standard clocks in an alternative to inflation, namely the slowly contracting ekpyrotic scenario. We study the phenomenology of massive spectator fields added to a state-of-the-art…
The fundamental difficulty in constructing a viable classical bouncing model is to evade the no-go theorem that states that, simultaneously maintaining the observational bounds on the tensor-to-scalar ratio and the non-Gaussian scalar…
Using the covariant formalism, we derive the equations of motion for adiabatic and entropy perturbations at third order in perturbation theory for cosmological models involving two scalar fields. We use these equations to calculate the…
Over 30 years ago, Barrow & Tipler proposed the principle according to which the action integrated over the entire 4-manifold describing the universe should be finite. Here we explore the cosmological consequences of a related criterion,…