Related papers: Natural Inflation
We consider here natural inflation in the low energy (two-derivative) metric-affine theory containing only the minimal degrees of freedom in the inflationary sector, i.e. the massless graviton and the pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson (PNGB).…
Recently, Cormier and Holman pointed out that fluctuations of an inflaton field $\phi$ are significantly enhanced in the model of {\it spinodal inflation} with a potential $V(\phi)$ for which the second derivative $V^{(2)}(\phi)$ changes…
Pseudo-Goldstone bosons (pGBs) can provide technically natural inflatons, as has been comparatively well-explored in the simplest axion examples. Although inflationary success requires trans-Planckian decay constants, f > Mp, several…
We propose a new class of natural inflation models based on a hidden scale invariance. In a very generic Wilsonian effective field theory with an arbitrary number of scalar fields, which exhibits scale invariance via the dilaton, the…
Most models of inflation have small parameters, either to guarantee sufficient inflation or the correct magnitude of the density perturbations. In this paper we show that, in supersymmetric theories with weak scale supersymmetry breaking,…
The early Universe inflation is well known as a promising theory to explain the origin of large scale structure of the Universe, a causal theory for the origin of primordial density fluctuations which may explain the observed density…
We propose a natural double inflation model in supergravity. In this model, chaotic inflation first takes place by virtue of the Nambu-Goldstone-like shift symmetry, which guarantees the absence of the exponential factor in the potential…
We show that inflation can naturally occur at a finite temperature T>H that is sustained by dissipative effects, when the inflaton field corresponds to a pseudo Nambu-Goldstone boson of a broken gauge symmetry. Similarly to "Little Higgs"…
In the context of the open inflationary universe, we calculate the amplitude of quantum fluctuations which deform the bubble shape. These give rise to scalar field fluctuations in the open Friedman-Robertson-Walker universe which is…
We present here the effective theory of inflation `a la Ginsburg-Landau in which the inflaton potential is a polynomial. The slow-roll expansion becomes a systematic 1/N expansion where N ~ 60. The spectral index and the ratio of…
Slow-roll inflation requires the inflaton field to have an exceptionally flat potential, which combined with measurements of the scale of inflation demands some degree of fine-tuning. Alternatively, the flatness of the potential could be…
We identify a new mechanism in supergravity theories which leads to successful inflation without any need for fine tuning. The simplest model yields a spectrum of density fluctuations tilted away from scale-invariance and negligible…
Recent observations of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) indicate that a successful theory of cosmological inflation needs to have flat potential of the inflaton scalar field. Realizing the inflaton to be a pseudo-Nambu Goldstone boson…
I describe a recently derived stochastic approach to inflaton dynamics which can address some serious problems associated with conventional inflationary theory. Using this theory I derive an exact solution to the stochastic dynamics for the…
The model of Natural Inflation is examined in light of recent 3-year data from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe and shown to provide a good fit. The inflaton potential is naturally flat due to shift symmetries, and in the simplest…
Natural (axionic) inflation provides a well-motivated and predictive scheme for the description of the early universe. It leads to sizeable primordial tensor modes and thus a high mass scale of the inflationary potential. Naively this seems…
The model of Natural Inflation is examined in light of recent 3-year data from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe and shown to provide a good fit. The inflaton potential is naturally flat due to shift symmetries, and in the simplest…
Models such as Natural Inflation that use Pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone bosons (PNGB's) as the inflaton are attractive for many reasons. However, they typically require trans-Planckian field excursions $\Delta \Phi>M_{\rm Pl}$, due to the need for…
Cosmic Inflation provides an attractive framework for understanding the early universe and the cosmic microwave background. It can readily involve energies close to the scale at which Quantum Gravity effects become important. General…
We re-examine large scalar fields within effective field theory, in particular focussing on the issues raised by their use in inflationary models (as suggested by BICEP2 to obtain primordial tensor modes). We argue that when the large-field…