Related papers: Initial conditions for quintessence after inflatio…
In the context of inflationary models with a pre-inflationary stage, in which the Einstein equations are obeyed, the weak energy condition is satisfied, and spacetime topology is trivial, we argue that homogeneity on super-Hubble scales…
We explore the dynamics of assisted quintessence, where more than one scalar field is present with the same potential. For potentials with tracking solutions, the fields naturally approach the same values; in the context of inflation this…
The homogeneous cosmological model in GR is proposed, where the vacuum energy, which can cause the inflation, is described by tensor field rather than by commonly used in inflationary scenarios scalar field. It is shown that if the initial…
From the assumption that the slow roll parameter $\epsilon$ has a Lorentzian form as a function of the e-folds number $N$, a successful model of a quintessential inflation is obtained. The form corresponds to the vacuum energy both in the…
The effect of the initial condition of inflation on the power spectra of scalar and tensor perturbations is estimated assuming a slow-roll inflation model. By defining a more general initial state in inflation particular properties of the…
The microscopic quantum field theory origins of warm inflation dynamics are reviewed. The warm inflation scenario is first described along with its results, predictions and comparison with the standard cold inflation scenario. The basics of…
We discuss the additional perturbation introduced during inflation by quantum stress tensor fluctuations of a conformally invariant field such as the photon. We consider both a kinematical model, which deals only with the expansion…
We compute the primordial scalar, vector and tensor metric perturbations arising from quantum field inflation. Quantum field inflation takes into account the nonperturbative quantum dynamics of the inflaton consistently coupled to the…
We analyse the mechanism of quintessential inflation in brane world scenarios for a number of particle physics inspired scalar potentials. We constrain the parameter space of those scalar potentials and comment on the likelihood that we…
We study initial conditions for inflation in scenarios where the inflaton potential has a plateau shape. Such models are those most favored by Planck data and can be obtained in a large number of model classes. As a representative example,…
We study a class of non-local, purely gravitational models which have the correct structure to reproduce the leading infrared logarithms of quantum gravitational back-reaction during the inflationary regime. These models end inflation in a…
We determine the frequency of regions of small-field inflation in the Wigner landscape as an approximation to random supergravities/type IIB flux compactifications. We show that small-field inflation occurs exponentially more often than…
We investigate a compelling model of quintessential inflation in the context of $\alpha$-attractors, which naturally result in a scalar potential featuring two flat regions, the inflationary plateau and the quintessential tail. The…
We analyze the onset of inflation for a simple single-field model when the system begins with significant inhomogeneities on length-scales shorter than the initial Hubble radius. We incorporate certain nonlinear interactions among the…
These lecture notes have been written for a short introductory course on the status of inflation after Planck and BICEP2, given at the Xth Modave School of Mathematical Physics. The first objective is to give an overview of the theory of…
High-energy physics often motivates multi-field inflationary scenarios where stochastic effects play a crucial role. Peculiar to multi-field models, the noise-induced centrifugal force results in a longer duration of inflation depending on…
We make a case for setting initial conditions for inflation at the Planck epoch in the kinetically dominated regime. For inflationary potentials with a plateau or a hill, i.e. potentials that are bounded from above within a certain region…
Inflation in cosmology is a specific stage preceding the Big Bang, aimed at solving both old background problems and new perturbation issues. Single-field inflation is a candidate to illustrate the picture of the initial universe, and…
We study multifield contributions to the scalar power spectrum in an ensemble of six-field inflationary models obtained in string theory. We identify examples in which inflation occurs by chance, near an approximate inflection point, and we…
Recent detection of $B$-mode polarization induced from tensor perturbations by the BICEP2 experiment implies so-called large field inflation, where an inflaton field takes super-Planckian expectation value during inflation, at a high energy…