Related papers: Cosmological structure problem of the ekpyrotic sc…
Reconstructing the shape of the primordial power spectrum in a model independent way from cosmological data is a useful consistency check on what is usually assumed regarding early universe physics. It is also our primary window to unknown…
We perform a cosmological analysis in which we allow the primordial power spectrum of scalar perturbations to assume a shape that is different with respect to the usual power-law, arising from the simplest models of cosmological inflation.…
There is increasing evidence from string theory that effective field theories are only reliable over approximately sub-Planckian field excursions. The two most promising effective models for early universe cosmology, inflation and…
We study cosmological tensor perturbations generated during de Sitter inflation in the conformal gravity with mass parameter $m^2=2H^2$. It turns out that tensor power spectrum is scale-invariant.
We consider the power spectrum of a biased tracer observed in a finite volume in the presence of a large-scale overdensity and tidal fields. Expanding both the observed power spectrum and the source fields (linear power spectrum, scalar…
I will discuss the development of inflationary theory and its present status, as well as some recent attempts to suggest an alternative to inflation. In particular, I will argue that the ekpyrotic scenario in its original form does not…
We examine the processes of quantum squeezing and decoherence of density perturbations produced during a slowly contracting ekpyrotic phase in which entropic perturbations are converted to curvature perturbations before the bounce to an…
We show how observations of the density perturbation (scalar) spectrum and the gravitational wave (tensor) spectrum allow a reconstruction of the potential responsible for cosmological inflation. A complete functional reconstruction or a…
Standard derivations of ``time-independent perturbation theory'' of quantum mechanics cannot be applied to the general case where potentials are energy dependent or where the inverse free Green function is a non-linear function of energy.…
The Hamiltonian approach to cosmological perturbations in general relativity in finite space-time is developed, where a cosmological scale factor is identified with spatial averaging the metric determinant logarithm. This identification…
Without invoking a perturbative expansion, we define the cosmological curvature perturbation, and consider its behaviour assuming that the universe is smooth over a sufficiently large comoving scale. The equations are simple, resembling…
The Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMBR) holds information about almost all the fundamental cosmological parameters, and by performing a likelihood analysis of high precision CMBR fluctuation data, these parameters can be inferred.…
Based on concepts drawn from the ekpyrotic scenario and M-theory, we elaborate our recent proposal of a cyclic model of the Universe. In this model, the Universe undergoes an endless sequence of cosmic epochs which begin with the Universe…
A new approach to cosmological perturbation theory has been recently introduced by Bartelmann et al., relying on nonequilibrium statistical theory of classical particles, and treating the gravitational interaction perturbatively. They…
In cyclic universe models based on a single scalar field (e.g., the radion determining the distance between branes in M-theory), virtually the entire universe makes it through the ekpyrotic smoothing and flattening phase, bounces, and…
We observe that the equation of motion for a free scalar field in a closed universe with radiation and a positive cosmological constant is given by Lam\'e's equation. Computing the exact power spectrum of scalar field perturbations, the…
We compute the one- and two-loop corrected mode function of a massless minimally coupled scalar endowed with a quartic self-interaction in the locally de Sitter background of an inflating universe for a state which is released in…
We show that a contracting universe which bounces due to quantum cosmological effects and connects to the hot big-bang expansion phase, can produce an almost scale invariant spectrum of perturbations provided the perturbations are produced…
I show that cosmological perturbation spectra produced from quantum fluctuations in massless or self-interacting scalar fields during an inflationary era remain invariant under a two parameter family of transformations of the homogeneous…
We derive general analytic formulae for the power spectrum and spectral index of the curvature perturbation produced during inflation driven by a multi-component inflaton field, up to the second order in the slow-roll approximation. We do…