Related papers: A Potential Window to the GUT
Inspired by the chromo-natural inflation model of Adshead&Wyman, we reshape its scalar content to relax the tension with current observational bounds. Besides an inflaton, the setup includes a spectator sector in which an axion and SU(2)…
We consider the effects of fields with suddenly changing mass on the inflationary power spectra. In this context, when a field becomes light, it will be excited. This process contributes to the tensor power spectrum. We compute these…
Observable quantities in cosmology are dimensionless, and therefore independent of the units in which they are measured. This is true of all physical quantities associated with the primordial perturbations that source cosmic microwave…
In a previous paper I showed that a classical scalar potential with $V''/V \sim 1$ can be sufficiently flattened by quantum corrections to give rise to slow-roll inflation. In this paper I give a hybrid inflation implementation of that idea…
We propose a testable alternative to inflation directly built in a very general class of ultraviolet complete theories of quantum gravity enjoying Weyl invariance. After the latter is spontaneously broken, logarithmic quantum corrections to…
In this paper we provide an accurate bound on primordial gravitational waves, i.e. tensor-to-scalar ratio $(r)$ for a general class of single-field models of inflation where inflation occurs always below the Planck scale, and the field…
We present a realistic non-supersymmetric inflation model based on a gauged U(1)$_{B-L}$ symmetry and a tree-level Higgs potential. The inflaton is identified with the scalar field which spontaneously breaks U(1)$_{B-L}$, and we include…
Studies of the initial conditions for inflation have conflicting predictions from exponential suppression to inevitability. At the level of phase space, this conflict arises from the competing intuitions of CPT invariance and…
Future cosmic microwave background polarization experiments will search for evidence of primordial tensor modes at large angular scales, in the multipole range $4 \leq \ell \leq 50.$ Because in that range there is some mild evidence of…
We revisit alternative mechanisms of gravitational wave production during inflation and argue that they generically emit a non-negligible amount of scalar fluctuations. We find the scalar power is larger than the tensor power by a factor of…
The Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) has recently reported updated measurements of the scalar spectral index $n_s$, revealing a tension with the predictions of many conventional inflationary models. In this work, we adopt a…
In this thesis we will primarily demonstrate how additional scalar degrees of freedom - which are motivated from many high-energy embeddings - open up new observational windows onto the physics of inflation. We construct a Bayesian…
Fundamental formulae representing the density perturbation spectrums generated in inflationary scenarios are rigorously proved. Quantum fluctuations as initial conditions for structure generation in some inflationary era can be calculated…
A new family of inflation models is introduced and studied. The models are characterised by a scalar potential which, far from the origin, approaches an inflationary plateau in a power-law manner, while near the origin becomes monomial, as…
We discuss the implications of purely classical, instead of quantum, theory of gravity for the gravitational wave spectrum generated during inflation. We show that a positive detection of primordial gravitational waves will no longer…
During the inflationary epoch, we investigate the reconstruction of the background variables within the framework of Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity, considering the scalar spectral index $n_s(N)$ and the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r(N)$, where…
We study the primordial gravitational wave background produced in models of single field inflation. Using the inflationary flow approach, we investigate the amplitude of gravitational wave spectrum in the frequency range 1 mHz - 1 Hz…
We explore the upper bound on the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$ in supersymmetric (F-term) hybrid inflation models with the gauge symmetry breaking scale set equal to the value $2.86\cdot10^{16} {\rm GeV}$, as dictated by the unification of…
Inflation in the framework of $f(R)$ modified gravity is revisited. We study the conditions that $f(R)$ should satisfy in order to lead to a viable inflationary model in the original form and in the Einstein frame. Based on these criteria…
We first derive the primordial power spectra, spectral indices and runnings of both scalar and tensor perturbations of a flat inflationary universe to the second-order approximations of the slow-roll parameters, in the framework of loop…