Related papers: A new mechanism for generating density perturbatio…
The presence of multiple fields during inflation might seed a detectable amount of non-Gaussianity in the curvature perturbations, which in turn becomes observable in present data sets like the cosmic microwave background (CMB) or the large…
We analyze an inflationary model in which part of the power in density perturbations arises due to particle production. The amount of particle production is modulated by an auxiliary field. Given an initial gradient for the auxiliary field,…
Starting from an initial state of thermal equilibrium, we derive an expression for the quantum fluctuation in the energy density during the inflationary epoch in terms of the mode functions for the inflaton field. The effect of this…
We present a new mechanism for slow-roll inflation based on higher dimensional supersymmetric gauge theory compactified to four dimensions with twisted (supersymmetry breaking) boundary conditions. These boundary conditions lead to a…
In generic particle physics models, the inflaton field is coupled to other bosonic and fermionic fields that acquire large masses during inflation and may decay into light degrees of freedom. This leads to dissipative effects that modify…
Slow-roll inflation is a successful paradigm. However we find that even a small coupling of the inflaton to other light fields can dramatically alter the dynamics and predictions of inflation. As an example, the inflaton can generically…
We construct a natural inflation model in supergravity where the inflaton is identified with a modulus field possessing a shift symmetry. The superpotential for the inflaton is generated by meson condensation due to strong dynamics with…
We analyse models of inflation in which isocurvature perturbations present during inflation are converted into the primordial curvature perturbation during instant preheating. This can be due to an asymmetry between the fields present…
Single field inflationary models predict nearly Gaussian initial conditions and hence a detection of non-Gaussianity would be a signature of the more complex inflationary scenarios. In this paper we study the effect on the cosmic microwave…
We propose an inflationary scenario where the inflaton field is non-minimally coupled to spacetime curvature and inflation is driven by a vacuum energy symmetry breaking potential without specifying \emph{a priori} whether the inflaton…
Moduli fields, which parameterize perturbative flat directions of the potential in supersymmetric theories, are natural candidates to act as inflatons. An inflationary potential on moduli space can result if the scale of dynamical SUSY…
Heavy scalar fields can undergo an instability during inflation as a result of their kinetic couplings with the inflaton. This is known as the geometrical destabilization of inflation, as it relies on the effect of the negative curvature of…
We present a numerical integration of the cosmological scalar perturbation equations in warm inflation. The initial conditions are provided by a discussion of the thermal fluctuations of an inflaton field and thermal radiation using a…
Using the techniques of out-of-equilibrium field theory, we study the influence on the properties of cosmological perturbations generated during inflation on observable scales coming from fluctuations corresponding today to scales much…
We present a class of very simple inflationary models of two scalar fields which leads to nongaussian isothermal perturbations with "blue" spectrum, n > 1. One of the models is inspired by supersymmetric theories where light scalar fields…
We discuss the phenomenology of the minimal inflation scenario. We concentrate on two aspects: inflationary trajectories and particle production. Our findings can be summarized in two main results: first, that inflationary trayectories that…
A recent variant of the inflationary paradigm is that the ``primordial'' curvature perturbations come from quantum fluctuations of a scalar field, subdominant and effectively massless during inflation, called the ``curvaton'', instead 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 study the non-perturbative evolution of inflationary fluctuations during preheating using fully non-linear general-relativistic field-theory simulations. We choose a single-field inflationary model that is consistent with observational…
We discuss a minimal extension of the Standard Model (SM) where a single real scalar field serves as both inflaton and dark matter. The corresponding Lagrangian contains the renormalizable interactions of the inflaton field. Quantum effects…