Related papers: Natural Inflation
In the framework of Born-Infeld inspired gravity theories, which deviates from General Relativity (GR) in the high curvature regime, we discuss the viability of Cosmic Inflation without scalar fields. For energy densities higher than the…
We point out a possible generation mechanism of non-Gaussian bubbles in the sky due to bubble nucleation in the early universe. We consider a curvaton scenario for inflation and assume that the curvaton field phi, whose energy density is…
We demonstrate that the gravity wave background amplitude implies a robust upper bound on the ratio: \lambda / H^{-1} < e^60, where \lambda is the proper wavelength of fluctuations of interest and H^{-1} is the horizon at the end of…
Due to intra-field gravitational interactions, field configurations have a strong negative component to their energy density at the planckian and transplanckian scales, conceivably resulting in a sequestration of the transplanckian field…
A new class of inflationary attractors characterized by a strongly non-geodesic motion has been discovered and explored in the past few years. I describe how they naturally arise in negatively curved field space, allowing to inflate on…
Scalar perturbations during inflation can be substantially amplified by tiny features in the inflaton potential. A bump-like feature behaves like a local speed-breaker and lowers the speed of the scalar field, thereby locally enhancing the…
Using numerical solutions of the full Einstein field equations coupled to a scalar inflaton field in 3+1 dimensions, we study the conditions under which a universe that is initially expanding, highly inhomogeneous and dominated by gradient…
In the context of the Higgs model involving gauge and Yukawa interactions with the spontaneous gauge symmetry breaking, we consider $\lambda \phi^4$ inflation with non-minimal gravitational coupling, where the Higgs field is identified as…
If time-translations are spontaneously broken, so are boosts. This symmetry breaking pattern can be non-linearly realized by either just the Goldstone boson of time translations, or by four Goldstone bosons associated with time translations…
Within supersymmetry we provide an example where the inflaton sector is derived from a gauge invariant polynomial of SU(N) or SO(N) gauge theory. Inflation in our model is driven by multi-flat directions, which assist accelerated expansion.…
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…
The effective field theory of single-field inflation characterizes the inflationary epoch in terms of a pattern of symmetry breaking. An operator acquires a time-dependent vacuum expectation value, defining a preferred spatial slicing. In…
We give a pedagogical review of a mechanism through which long wave length photons can become massive during inflation. Our account begins with a discussion of the period of exponentially rapid expansion known as inflation. We next describe…
It is shown that in a number of scalar potentials with an unstable local maximum at the origin chaotic inflation is followed by new inflation if model parameters are appropriately chosen. In this model density fluctuation can have a…
In order to go beyond the mean-field approximation, commonly used in the inflationary computations, an identification of the quantum constituents of the inflationary background is made. In particular, the homogeneous scalar field…
We propose a hybrid inflation model where a pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson inflaton couples to $N$ waterfall scalar fields respecting a $Z_N$ symmetry. We identify the phases for the inflation and the consequent waterfall transition,…
In this lecture I will review the present status of inflation within string-based brane-world scenarios. The idea is to start from a supersymmetric configuration with two parallel static Dp-branes, and slightly break the supersymmetry…
We consider curved space quantum corrections to the equations of motion of the inflaton field in the early Universe. Using the stochastic formalism in phase space, we demonstrate that the quantum corrected evolution of the inflaton can…
Chromo-Natural Inflation is the first worked example of a model of inflation in which slow-roll inflation is achieved by "magnetic drift" as opposed to Hubble friction. In this work, we give an account of the perturbations at linear order…
We calculate the power spectrum of adiabatic density perturbations in an open inflationary model in which inflation occurs in two stages. First an epoch of old inflation creates a large, smooth universe, solving the horizon and homogeneity…