Related papers: Conditions for Successful Extended Inflation

Scalar field models of inflation based on a large nonminimal coupling to gravity xi, in particular, Higgs inflation, may violate unitarity at an energy scale ~ M_p / xi << M_p. In this case the model is incomplete at energy scales relevant…

Unimodular gravity is an alternative theory of gravity to general relativity. The gravitational field equations are given by the trace-free version of Einstein's field equations. Due to the structure of the theory, unimodular gravity admits…

Quantum gravity computations suggest the existence of an ultraviolet and an infrared fixed point where quantum scale invariance emerges as an exact symmetry. We discuss a particular variable gravity model for the crossover between these…

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 investigate a nonsingular initial state of the Universe which leads to inflation naturally. The model is described by a scalar field with a quadratic potential in Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld gravity. The curvature of this initial…

Inflation due to a non-minimally coupled scalar field with a large non-minimal coupling, as first proposed by Salopek, Bardeen and Bond (SBB), is in good agreement with the observed value of the spectral index and constraints on the…

We study the embedding theory being a formulation of the gravitation theory where the independent variable is the embedding function for the four-dimensional space-time in a flat ambient space. We do not impose additional constraints which…

The BICEP2 observations, if confirmed, point to a high scale of inflation and large field excursions during the inflationary era. Non-compact string moduli spaces are a suggestive setting for these phenomena. While unlikely to be described…

Within General Relativity, a minimally coupled scalar field governed by a quadratic potential is able to produce an accelerated expansion of the universe provided its value and excursion are larger than the Planck scale. This is an…

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…

We summarize our work on a consistency condition for inflation in two-field cosmological models, in the regime of rapid turn and third-order slow roll. To ensure a sustained inflationary period of this type, one needs to satisfy a certain…

We provide a refined and much more simplified Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet inflationary theoretical framework, which is compatible with the GW170817 observational constraints on the gravitational wave speed. As in previous works, the constraint…

In hybrid inflationary models, inflation ends by a sudden instability associated with a steep ridge in the potential. Here we argue that this feature can generate a large contribution to the curvature perturbation on observable scales. This…

We present a model of inflation based on the anomaly-induced effective action of gravity in the presence of a conformally invariant Hilbert-Einstein term. Our approach is based on the conformal representation of the fields action and on the…

We have proposed a new class of inflationary scenarios in which the first stage of expansion is driven by "old" false vacuum inflation. This ends by nucleation of a bubble, which then further inflates. Unlike the standard slow-roll…

We review the main aspects of the warm inflation scenario, focusing on the inflationary dynamics and the predictions related to the primordial spectrum of perturbations, to be compared with the recent cosmological observations. We study in…

The theory of General Relativity was established on a spacetime manifold equipped with a metric tensor, $(\mathcal{M}_4,\text{g})$, and the connection on $\mathcal{M}_4$ identified with the Levi-Civita one. Even though there are valid…

Using the fact that we only observe those modes which exit the Hubble horizon during inflation, one can calculate the entanglement entropy of such long-wavelength perturbations by tracing out unobservable sub-Hubble fluctuations they are…

We consider the effects of inhomogeneous initial conditions in both the scalar field profile and the extrinsic curvature on different inflationary models. In particular, we compare the robustness of small field inflation to that of large…

A unified description of early-time inflation with the current cosmic acceleration is achieved by means of a new theory that uses a quadratic model of gravity, with the inclusion of an exponential $F(R)$-gravity contribution for dark…