Related papers: Distinguishing Causal Seeds from Inflation
We show that if the primordial classical perturbations were generated by the gravitational particle creation during inflation, and followed by an evolution of quantum-to-classical transition,the time dependent correlation of these…
We study the imprints of anisotropic inflation on the CMB temperature fluctuations and polarizations. The statistical anisotropy stems not only from the direction dependence of curvature and tensor perturbations, but also from the cross…
Thermal inflation is a second epoch of exponential expansion at typical energy scales $V^{1/4} \sim 10^{6 \sim 8} \mathrm{GeV}$. If the usual primordial inflation is followed by thermal inflation, the primordial power spectrum is only…
Perturbations from inflation evolve into large scale structure of the late universe, and encode abundant cosmic structure formation physics. We allow freedom in the primordial power spectrum, rather than assuming a power law scale…
In this work we study the imprints of bubble nucleation on primordial inflationary perturbations. We assume that the bubble is formed via the tunneling of a spectator field from the false vacuum of its potential to its true vacuum. We…
Erickcek, Kamionkowski and Carroll proposed in 2008 that the dipole modulation of the CMB could be due to a very large scale perturbation of the field $\phi$ causing the primordial curvature perturbation. We repeat their calculation using…
Slow-roll inflation generically makes several predictions: a flat Universe, primordial adiabatic density perturbations, and a stochastic gravity-wave background. Each inflation model will further predict specific relations between the…
We review the particle theory origin of inflation and curvaton mechanisms for generating large scale structures and the observed temperature anisotropy in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation. Since inflaton or curvaton energy…
It is proposed that if quantum states of space-time are coherent on null surfaces, holographic Planck-scale fluctuations of inflationary horizons dominate the formation of primordial scalar curvature perturbations. It is shown that the…
We propose a new test for distinguishing observationally cosmological models based on seed-like primordial perturbations (like cosmic strings or textures), from models based on Gaussian fluctuations. We investigate analytically the {\it…
Inflation produces super-horizon sized perturbations that ultimately return within the horizon and are thought to form the seeds of all observed large scale structure in the Universe. But inflationary predictions can only be compared with…
We compute the contribution to the scalar metric perturbations from large-scale magnetic fields which are generated during inflation. We show that apart from the usual passive and compensated modes, the magnetic fields also contribute to…
A B-mode polarization signal in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) is widely regarded as smoking gun evidence for gravitational waves produced during inflation. Here, we demonstrate that tensor perturbations sourced during…
Recent results from cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiments verify several of the predictions of inflation, while ruling out a number of alternative structure-formation scenarios. Given the successes of the theory, the obvious next…
Some inflationary models predict the existence of isocurvature primordial fluctuations, in addition to the well known adiabatic perturbation. Such mixed models are not yet ruled out by available data sets. In this paper we explore the…
We propose a new mechanism to generate density perturbations in inflationary models. Spatial fluctuations in the decay rate of the inflaton field to ordinary matter lead to fluctuations in the reheating temperature. We argue that in most…
We summarize the utility of precise cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization measurements as probes of the physics of inflation. We focus on the prospects for using CMB measurements to differentiate various inflationary mechanisms. In…
We investigate the formation of large peaks in the inflationary curvature power spectrum from double-well potentials. In such scenarios, the initial CMB spectrum is created at large field values. Subsequently, the inflaton will cross one of…
Models of axion inflation are particularly interesting since they provide a natural justification for the flatness of the potential over a super-Planckian distance, namely the approximate shift-symmetry of the inflaton. In addition, most of…
A primordial stochastic background of very weakly coupled massless (pseudo-)scalars can seed CMB anisotropy, when large-scale fluctuations of their stress-tensor re-enter the horizon during the matter-dominated era. A general relation…