Related papers: A Leading Logarithm Approximation for Inflationary…
We discuss the coupled Einstein-Klein-Gordon equations for a complex scalar field with and without a quartic self-interaction in a zero curvature Friedman-Lema\^{\i}tre Universe. The complex scalar field, as well as the metric, is…
We develop a procedure for re-summing the large logarithms induced in gravity by loops of inflationary scalars. We first show how the scalar can be integrated out of the field equations in the presence of constant graviton field. We then…
We study models of inflation where the scalar field $\phi$ that drives inflation is coupled non-minimally to gravity via $\xi \phi^2 R$, or where the gravity sector is enlarged by an $R^2$ term. We consider the original Higgs inflation,…
We apply Starobinsky's formalism of stochastic inflation to the case of a minimally coupled scalar field with linear self-interaction potential. We solve the corresponding Fokker-Planck equation exactly, and obtain analytical expressions…
Stochastic inflation rests on the separate-universe approximation, i.e. the ability to describe long-wavelength fluctuations in an inflating universe as homogeneous perturbations of its background dynamics. Although this approximation is…
An alternative scenario about the phenomenology of primordial Universe is k-inflation. According to this concept, inflation can be achieved by nonstandard kinetic term of scalar field, namely the inflaton. In this project we focus on…
The evolution of a scalar field is explored taking into account the presence of a background fluid in a positively curved Universe in the framework of loop quantum cosmology. Though the mechanism that provides the initial conditions for…
We propose a new approach for calculating the curvature perturbations produced during inflation in the stochastic formalism. In our formalism, the fluctuations of the e-foldings are directly calculated without perturbatively expanding the…
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…
The continual production of long wavelength scalars and gravitons during inflation injects secular growth into loop corrections which would be constant in flat space. One typically finds that each additional factor of the loop counting…
We investigate the inflationary universe in a theory where two scalar fields non-minimally coupling to the scalar curvature and an extra $R^2$ term exist and the conformal invariance is broken. In particular, the slow-roll inflation is…
The usual description of inflationary fluctuations uses the framework of quantum field theory (QFT) in curved spacetime, in which quantum fluctuations are superimposed on a classical background spacetime. Even for large fluctuations, such…
We study cosmological perturbations generated from quantum fluctuations in multi-field inflationary scenarios in generalized Einstein theories, taking both adiabatic and isocurvature modes into account. In the slow-roll approximation,…
An interacting scalar field with largish coupling to curvature can support a distinctive inflationary universe scenario. Previously this has been discussed for the Standard Model Higgs field, treated classically or in a leading log…
Quantum field theory, which is generally used to describe the origin of large-scale gravitational perturbations during cosmic inflation, has been shown to omit an important physical effect in curved space-time, the nonlocal entanglement…
Recent progress on nonlinear sigma models on de Sitter background has permitted the resummation of large inflationary logarithms by combining a variant of Starobinsky's stochastic formalism with a variant of the renormalization group. We…
The effective field theory (EFT) of inflation provides a natural framework to study the new physical effects on primordial perturbations. Recently a healthy extension of the EFT of inflation with high-order operators has been proposed,…
Light scalars in inflationary spacetimes suffer from logarithmic infrared divergences at every order in perturbation theory. This corresponds to the scalar field values in different Hubble patches undergoing a random walk of quantum…
Quantum effects play an essential role in modern cosmology. Perhaps the most striking example comes from large-scale structures, generally assumed to originate from vacuum quantum fluctuations and stretched by an expansion phase. Inflation…
These lectures are intended to give a pedagogical introduction to the main current picture of the very early universe. After elementary reviews of general relativity and of the standard Big Bang model, the following subjects are discussed:…