Related papers: Detection Limits for Super-Hubble Suppression of C…
Thermal inflation is a second epoch of exponential expansion at typical energy scales $V^{1/4} \sim 10^{6 \sim 8} \mathrm{GeV}$. If the usual primordial inflation is followed by thermal inflation, the primordial power spectrum is only…
A scenario with two subsequent periods of inflationary expansion in the very early universe is examined. The model is based on a potential motivated by symmetries being found in field theory at high energy. For various parameter sets of the…
High-scale string inflationary models are in well-known tension with low-energy supersymmetry. A promising solution involves models where the inflaton is the volume of the extra dimensions so that the gravitino mass relaxes from large…
In this paper we break the scale invariance of the primordial power spectrum of curvature perturbations of inflation. Introducing a singular behaviour due to spontaneous symmetry breaking in the inflaton potential, we obtain fully analytic…
We summarize the utility of precise cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization measurements as probes of the physics of inflation. We focus on the prospects for using CMB measurements to differentiate various inflationary mechanisms. In…
We consider the influence of mode - mode coupling in the inflaton field on the spectrum of primordial fluctuations. To this end, we formulate a phenomenological model where the inflaton fluctuations are treated as a fluid undergoing…
We consider an inflationary universe model in which the phase of accelerated expansion was preceded by a non-singular bounce and a period of contraction which involves a phase of deceleration. We follow fluctuations which exit the Hubble…
Because of the non-linearity of the Einstein equations, the cosmological fluctuations which are generated during inflation on a wide range of wavelengths do not evolve independently. In particular, to second order in perturbation theory,…
Detailed measurements of the cosmic microwave background indicate the large-scale homogeneity of the universe. On very small scales, we observe however inhomogeneities such as galaxies, stars, planets and ourselves. In the context of hot…
We study detection prospects of a gravitational-wave background (GWB) sourced by SU(2) gauge fields considering all possible observational constraints. More precisely, we consider bounds set by cosmic microwave background measurements,…
The motion of a pseudo-scalar field $X$ during inflation naturally induces a significant amplification of the gauge fields to which it is coupled. The amplified gauge fields can source characteristic scalar and tensor primordial…
In the last decade the detection of individual massive dark matter sub-halos has been possible using potential correction formalism in strong gravitational lens imaging. Here we propose a statistical formalism to relate strong gravitational…
An examination is made of the widely held belief that inflation is the only possible causal mechanism capable of generating density perturbations on scales well in excess of the Hubble radius. A simple proof is given, which relies only on…
We discuss the principles governing the selection of inflationary models for which preheating can affect the CMB. This is a (fairly small) subset of those models which have non-negligible entropy/isocurvature perturbations on large scales…
Most models of inflation have small parameters, either to guarantee sufficient inflation or the correct magnitude of the density perturbations. In this paper we show that, in supersymmetric theories with weak scale supersymmetry breaking,…
We explore constraints on the spectral index $n$ of density fluctuations and the neutrino energy density fraction $\Omega_{HDM}$, employing data from a variety of large scale observations. The best fits occur for $n\approx 1$ and…
We investigate the quantum fluctuations of an inflaton field in a two-field model of one-bubble open inflation. One of the inflatons is assumed to be responsible for the first false vacuum stage of inflation and the other is assumed to be…
There is an apparent power deficit relative to the $\Lambda$CDM prediction of the CMB spectrum at large scales, which, though not yet statistically significant, persists from WMAP to Planck data. Proposals that invoke some form of initial…
The recent local measurement of the Hubble constant based on the distance-ladder method has reached a $1.91\%$ precision, but this result is in tension with the early-universe measurements at the more than 4$\sigma$ level, bringing a crisis…
The appearance of peaks in various primordial fluctuation Fourier power spectra is a generic prediction of the inflationary scenario. We investigate whether future experiments, in particular the satellite experiment PLANCK, will be able to…