Related papers: A Cosmological Window on Trans-Planckian Physics

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…

The recent measurements of cosmological parameters by the Planck collaboration favors inflationary models with a redshifted spectrum and a very low tensor-to-scalar ratio. Two well-studied scenarios in the particle physics/string theory…

Fluctuations in high-redshift cosmic 21-cm radiation provide a new window for observing unconventional effects of high-energy physics in the primordial spectrum of density perturbations. In scenarios for which the initial state prior to…

We present the general discussion on the inflection point inflation with small or large inflaton fields and show the effects of reheating dynamics on the inflationary predictions. In order to compare the model predictions with precisely…

Observational Cosmology has indeed made very rapid progress in the past decade. The ability to quantify the universe has largely improved due to observational constraints coming from structure formation Measurements of CMB anisotropy and,…

We investigate the effects of the presence of relic classical superhorizon inhomogeneities during inflation. This superhorizon inhomogeneity appears as a gradient locally and picks out a preferred direction. Quantum fluctuations on this…

Recent Planck data show the anomalies of CMB fluctuations on large angular scales, which confirms the early observations by WMAP. We continue studying an inflationary model, in which before the slow roll inflation the universe is in a…

Cosmic inflation provides a window to the highest energy densities accessible in nature, far beyond those achievable in any realistic terrestrial experiment. Theoretical insights into the inflationary era and its observational probes may…

Accurate estimation of cosmological parameters from microwave background anisotropies requires high-accuracy understanding of the cosmological model. Normally, a power-law spectrum of density perturbations is assumed, in which case the…

We study Planck 2015 cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy data using the energy density inhomogeneity power spectrum generated by quantum fluctuations during an early epoch of inflation in the non-flat $\Lambda$CDM model. Unlike…

In the light of the Planck 2015 results, we update simple inflationary models based on the quadratic, quartic, Higgs and Coleman-Weinberg potentials in the context of the Randall-Sundrum brane-world cosmology. Brane-world cosmological…

The observational status of inflation after the Planck 2013 and 2015 results and the BICEP2/Keck Array and Planck joint analysis is discussed. These pedagogical lecture notes are intended to serve as a technical guide filling the gap…

The apparent alignment of the cosmic microwave background multipoles on large scales challenges the standard cosmological model. Scalar field inflation is isotropic and cannot account for the observed alignment. We explore the imprints, a…

We provide a class of QFTs which exhibit dissipation above a threshold energy, thereby breaking Lorentz invariance. Unitarity is preserved by coupling the fields to additional degrees of freedom (heavy fields) which introduce the rest…

In this paper we analyze the possibility of detecting nontrivial quantum phenomena in observations of the temperature anisotropy of the cosmic background radiation (CBR), for example, if the Universe could be found in a coherent…

Previously defined covariant and gauge-invariant perturbation variables, representing, e.g., the fractional spatial energy density gradient on hypersurfaces of constant expansion, are used to simplify the linear perturbation analysis of a…

We demonstrate that local, scale-dependent non-Gaussianity can generate cosmic variance uncertainty in the observed spectral index of primordial curvature perturbations. In a universe much larger than our current Hubble volume, locally…

Inflationary cosmological perturbations of quantum-mechanical origin generically interact with all degrees of freedom present in the early Universe. Therefore, they must be viewed as an open quantum system in interaction with an…

The trans-Planckian censorship conjecture (TCC) puts an upper bound on the life-time of de Sitter spacetimes. It has immediate consequences for inflationary cosmology. In the standard paradigm, the universe has experienced a single stage of…

We examine cosmological perturbations in a dynamical theory of inflation in which an Abelian gauge field couples directly to the inflaton, breaking conformal invariance. When the coupling between the gauge field and the inflaton takes a…