Related papers: False Vacuum Inflation with a Quartic Potential
We investigate to which extent and under which circumstances false vacuum energy ($V_0$) dominated slow-roll inflation is compatible with a large tensor-to-scalar ratio $r = O(0.1)$, as indicated by the recent BICEP2 measurement. With $V_0$…
We investigate the initial conditions problem for multifield inflation. In these scenarios the pre-inflationary dynamics can be chaotic, increasing the sensitivity of the onset of inflation to the initial data even in the homogeneous limit.…
The issue of electroweak vacuum stability is studied in presence of a scalar field which participates in modifying the minimal chaotic inflation model. It is shown that the threshold effect on the Higgs quartic coupling originating from the…
We present a unified framework that simultaneously addresses the dynamics of early-time cosmic inflation and late-time cosmic acceleration within the context of a single scalar field non-minimally coupled to gravity. By employing an…
Modular invariance is a striking symmetry in string theory, which may keep stringy corrections under control. In this paper, we investigate a phenomenological consequence of the modular invariance, assuming that this symmetry is preserved…
In this paper we investigate the induced inflation with two flat regions: one Starobinsky-like plateau in big field regime and one shorter plateau around the saddle point of the Einstein frame potential. This multi-phase inflationary…
We propose a general scenario for moduli stabilization where low-energy supersymmetry can be accommodated with a high scale of inflation. The key ingredient is that the stabilization of the modulus field during and after inflation is not…
It has been shown that hybrid inflation may end with the formation of non-topological solitons of inflaton field. As a first step towards a fully realistic picture of the post-inflation era and reheating in supersymmetric hybrid inflation…
We revisit the recently proposed mechanism of Geometric Inflation. On general grounds, we show that obtaining the right amount of inflation demands an exceedingly large initial energy density. We introduce a scalar field and study the…
We consider cosmological inflation generated by a scalar field slowly rolling off from a de Sitter maximum of its potential. The models belong to the class of hilltop models and represent the most general model of this kind in which the…
We examine the hypothesis that inflation is primarily driven by vacuum energy at a scale indicated by gauge coupling unification. Concretely, we consider a class of hybrid inflation models wherein the vacuum energy associated with a grand…
A new model of inflation is described. An unusual form for the inflationary potential is obtained because the inflaton corresponds to a non-trivial path in the configuration space of the two real scalar fields of the model. The model…
In the presence of a short-distance cutoff, the choice of a vacuum state in an inflating, non-de Sitter universe is unavoidably ambiguous. The ambiguity is related to the time at which initial conditions for the mode functions are specified…
I study two-stage hybrid inflation driven by moduli fields, corresponding to flat directions of supersymmetry, lifted by supergravity corrections. The first stage corresponds to a period of either fast-roll or `locked' inflation, induced by…
We study two-field inflation derived from a single complex scalar field with a nonzero vacuum expectation value. The dynamics of inflation are governed by two parameters, the vacuum expectation value and the mass parameter of the phase…
Motivated by trans-Planckian issues in inflation, we determine the Hilbert space and amplitudes of quantum perturbations in the general low-energy effective theory of (multi-)field inflation without relying on the sub-horizon limit. The…
Hybrid Inflation is a two-field model where inflation ends by a tachyonic instability, the duration of which is determined by stochastic effects and has important observational implications. Making use of the recursive approach to the…
We propose new supergravity models describing chaotic Linde- and Starobinsky-like inflation in terms of a single chiral superfield. The key ideas to obtain a positive vacuum energy during large field inflation are (i) stabilization of the…
Inflation is the currently accepted paradigm for the beginnings of the Universe. To explain the observed almost scale invariant spectrum of density perturbations with only a slight spectral tilt, inflation must have been "slow roll", that…
We investigate the parameter space of hybrid inflation models where inflation terminates via a first-order phase transition causing nucleation of bubbles. Such models experience a tension from the need to ensure nearly scale invariant…