Related papers: Reconstructing the Inflaton Potential --- an Overv…
A sufficiently rigid relativistic elastic solid can be stable for negative pressure values and thus is capable of driving a stage of accelerated expansion. If a relativistic elastic solid drove an inflationary stage in the early Universe,…
Purely geometrical arguments show that there exist classes of homospectral inflationary cosmologies, i.e. different expansion histories producing the same spectrum of comoving curvature perturbations. We develop a general algorithm to…
Many, if not most, inflationary models predict the power-law index of the spectrum of density perturbations is close to one, though not precisely equal to one, |n-1| \sim O(0.1), implying that the spectrum of density perturbations is…
We have investigated inflation models that predict a very small value of the tensor-to-scalar ratio, $r$. The spectral index $n_s$, and the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$, are strictly constrained by the Planck data. $n_s$ and $r$ are sensitive…
Inflationary consistency equations relate the scalar and tensor perturbations. We elucidate the infinite hierarchy of consistency equations of single-field inflation, the first of which is the well-known relation A_T^2/A_S^2 = -n_T/2…
There exist several models of inflation that produce primordial bispectra that contain a large number of oscillations. In this paper we discuss these models, and aim at finding a method of detecting such bispectra in the data. We explain…
A pressing problem in comparing inflationary models with observation is the accurate calculation of correlation functions. One approach is to evolve them using ordinary differential equations ("transport equations"), analogous to the…
We present a complete computation of the scalar power spectrum in the \emph{inflation without inflaton} (IWI) framework, where the inflationary expansion is driven solely by a de~Sitter (dS) background and scalar fluctuations arise as…
A natural combination of the first and second derivatives of the scalar potential was achieved in a framework of an alternative refined de Sitter conjecture recently proposed in the literature. In this work, we study various inflation…
The inflationary paradigm is an important cornerstone of the concordance cosmological model. However, standard inflation cannot fully address the transition from an early homogeneous and isotropic stage, to another one lacking such…
Inflation is the leading paradigm for explaining the origin of primordial density perturbations and the observed temperature fluctuations of the cosmic microwave background. However many open questions remain, in particular whether one or…
The linear and quadratic perturbations for a scalar-tensor model with non-minimal coupling to curvature, coupling to the Gauss-Bonnet invariant and non-minimal kinetic coupling to the Einstein tensor are developed. The quadratic action for…
We study a class of generalized inflation models in which the inflaton is coupled to the Ricci scalar by a general $f(\phi, R)$ term. The scalar power spectrum, the spectral index, the running of the spectral index, the tensor mode spectrum…
We use a numerical code to compute the density perturbations generated during an inflationary epoch which includes a spontaneous symmetry breaking phase transition. A sharp step in the inflaton potential generates $k$ dependent oscillations…
We show that the prediction for the primordial tensor power spectrum cannot be modified at leading order in derivatives. Indeed, one can always set to unity the speed of propagation of gravitational waves during inflation by a suitable…
We study higher curvature corrections to the scalar spectral index, the tensor spectral index, the tensor-to-scalar ratio, and the polarization of gravitational waves. We find that the higher curvature corrections can not be negligible in…
Determining the energy scale of inflation is crucial to understand the nature of inflation in the early Universe. We place observational constraints on the energy scale of the observable part of the inflaton potential by combining the…
Higher-curvature corrections to the effective gravitational action may leave signatures in the spectrum of primordial tensor perturbations if the inflationary energy scale is sufficiently high. In this paper we further investigate the…
We study in detail the power spectra of scalar and tensor perturbations generated during inflation in loop quantum cosmology (LQC). After clarifying in a novel quantitative way how inverse-volume corrections arise in inhomogeneous settings,…
We study single-field inflationary models with steep step-like features in the potential that lead to the temporary violation of the slow-roll conditions during the evolution of the inflaton. These features enhance the power spectrum of the…