Related papers: Minkowski Functional Description of Microwave Back…
Observations of the polarization of the cosmic microwave backround (CMB) have the potential to place much tighter constraints on cosmological parameters than observations of the fluctuations in temperature alone. We discuss using CMB…
We carry out numerical investigations of the perturbations in Nflation models where the mass spectrum is generated by random matrix theory. The tensor-to-scalar ratio and non-gaussianity are already known to take the single-field values,…
The B-mode polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) provides a unique window into tensor perturbations from inflationary gravitational waves. Survey effects complicate the estimation and description of the power spectrum on the…
An important prediction of inflation is the production of a primordial stochastic gravitational wave background. Observing this background is challenging due to the weakness of the signal and the simultaneous presence of an astrophysical…
Skewness of temperature fluctuations of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) produced by initially Gaussian adiabatic perturbations with the flat (Harrison-Zeldovich) spectrum, which arises due to non-linear corrections to a gravitational…
In this thesis we investigate several aspects related to the theory of fluctuations in the Cosmic Microwave Background. We develop a new algorithm to calculate the angular power spectrum of the anisotropies which is two orders of magnitude…
We study the implications of recent indications for a red spectrum of primordial density perturbations for the detection of inflationary gravitational waves (IGWs) with forthcoming cosmic microwave background experiments. We find that if…
The microscopic quantum field theory origins of warm inflation dynamics are reviewed. The warm inflation scenario is first described along with its results, predictions and comparison with the standard cold inflation scenario. The basics of…
We present simulations of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMBR) power spectrum for a class of mixed, non-Gaussian, primordial random fields. We assume a skew positive mixed model with adiabatic inflation perturbations plus…
Inflation generates gravitational waves, which may be observable in the low multipoles of the cosmic microwave background (cmb) anisotropy but only if the inflaton field variation is at least of order the Planck scale. Such a large…
Previous work on the gravitational-wave background generated in a two-scalar-field cosmological model, in which warm inflation and the dark sector are unified within a single framework, has shown that the resulting spectrum could be…
We have independently measured the genus topology of the temperature fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background seen in the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) 3-year data. A genus analysis of the WMAP data indicates…
The Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) detection of microwave background anisotropies may contain a component due to gravitational waves generated by inflation. It is shown that the gravitational waves from inflation might be seen using…
We study the possibility that particle production during inflation could source observable gravity waves on scales relevant for Cosmic Microwave Background experiments. A crucial constraint on such scenarios arises because particle…
In this work we analyse in detail the possibility of using small and intermediate-scale gravitational wave anisotropies to constrain the inflationary particle content. First, we develop a phenomenological approach focusing on anisotropies…
The very basics of cosmological inflation are discussed. We derive the equations of motion for the inflaton field, introduce the slow-roll parameters, and present the computation of the inflationary perturbations and their connection to the…
We investigate the cosmic variance of the skewness of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies in an inflationary model which leads to the baryon isocurvature scenario for the cosmic structure formation. In this model, the baryon…
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 present the first computation of the cosmological perturbations generated during inflation up to second order in deviations from the homogeneous background solution. Our results, which fully account for the inflaton self-interactions as…
Physical scenarios, leading to highly energetic stochastic gravitational waves backgrounds (for frequencies ranging from the $\mu$Hz up to the GHz) are examined. In some cases the typical amplitude of the logarithmic energy spectrum can be…