Related papers: From Inflation to Dark Energy
Over the past three years we have determined the basic features of our Universe. It is spatially flat; accelerating; comprised of 1/3 a new form of matter, 2/3 a new form of energy, with some ordinary matter and a dash of massive neutrinos;…
The accelerated expansion of space during the period of cosmological inflation leads to trans-Planckian issues which need to be addressed. Most importantly, the physical wavelength of fluctuations which are studied at the present time by…
A cosmological scenario is proposed where the dark matter (DM) and dark energy (DE) of the universe are two simultaneous manifestations of an inhomogenous dilaton. The equation of state of the field is scale-dependent and pressureless at…
Recently Hollands and Wald argued that inflation does not solve any of the major cosmological problems. We explain why we disagree with their arguments. They also proposed a new speculative mechanism of generation of density perturbations.…
We identify troubling cases of so-called `permanent underdetermination' in both dark energy and inflationary cosmology. We bring to bear (a) a taxonomy of possible responses to underdetermination, and (b) an understanding of both dark…
A model of inflation is proposed in which compact extra dimensions allow a graceful exit without recourse to flat potentials or super-Planckian field values. Though bubbles of true vacuum are too sparse to uniformly reheat the Universe by…
We describe a simple and efficient mechanism by which very heavy particles are copiously created from a primordial inflationary epoch. It works for scalar fields which are massless or very light during inflation and acquire a large mass…
There are several works searching for a clue of trans-Planckian physics on the primordial density perturbation spectrum. Here we would like to point out an important aspect which has been overlooked so far. When we consider a model in which…
We investigate the coupling of mimetic dark matter to the Gauss-Bonnet topological term in addition to the Einstein-Hilbert action. We demonstrate that such interactions can naturally give rise to mimetic dark matter during the inflationary…
Within the framework of an explicit dynamical model, in which we calculate the radiatively-corrected, tree-level potential that sets up inflation, we show that the inflaton can be a significant part of dark matter today. We exhibit…
We consider the single-parameter $\mathcal{R}+ c\mathcal{R}^2$ gravitational action and use constraints from astrophysics and the laboratory to derive a natural relation between the coefficient $c$ and the value of the cosmological…
In the context of the two-fluid model introduced to tame the transplanckian problem of black hole physics, the inflaton field of the chaotic inflation scenario is identified with the fluctuation of the density of modes. Its mass comes about…
At the first stage of reheating after inflation, parametric resonance may rapidly transfer most of the energy of an inflaton field $\phi$ to the energy of other bosons. We show that quantum fluctuations of scalar and vector fields produced…
In this article we review the theory of cosmological inflation with a particular focus on the beautiful connection it provides between the physics of the very small and observations of the very large. We explain how quantum mechanical…
It has been shown that the longitudinal mode of a massive vector boson can be produced by inflationary fluctuations and account for the dark matter content of the Universe. In this work we examine the possibility of instead producing the…
A new mechanism for producing axion dark matter is proposed. By invoking low-scale inflation and a kinetic mixing between the axion and the inflaton, it is shown that the axion is driven to a field point slightly displaced from the…
Particle production from vacuum fluctuations during inflation is briefly revisited. The moduli problem occurring with light particles produced at the end of inflation is addressed, namely the fact that some results are in disagreement with…
We present a scenario of vector dark matter production during inflation containing a complex inflaton field which is charged under a dark gauge field and which has a symmetry breaking potential. As the inflaton field rolls towards the…
The most up to date femto- and micro-lensing constraints indicate that primordial black holes of $\sim 10^{-16} M_\odot$ and $\sim 10^{-12} M_\odot$, respectively, may constitute a large fraction of the dark matter. We describe analytically…
Astrophysical observations provide the best evidence of physics beyond the particle physicists' standard model. Over the past decade, the case has solidified for inflation, dark energy, dark matter and massive neutrinos. In this report we…