Related papers: Magnetic Monopoles and Cosmic Inflation
Higgs field of particle physics can play the role of the inflaton in the early universe, if it is non-minimally coupled to gravity. The Higgs inflation scenario predicts a small tensor to scalar ratio: $r\simeq 0.003$. Although this value…
It is already understood that the increasing observational evidence for an open Universe may be reconciled with inflation if our horizon is contained inside one single huge bubble nucleated during the inflationary phase transition. In the…
Inflation has long been thought as the best way of producing primordial large-scale magnetic fields. To achieve fields strong enough to seed the galactic dynamo, most of the mechanisms operate outside conventional electromagnetic theory.…
In this paper we show that power-law inflation can be realized in non-minimal gravitational coupling of electromagnetic field with a general function of Gauss-Bonnet invariant. Such a non-minimal coupling may appear due to quantum…
We revisit inflation in induced gravity. Our focus is on models where the low scale Planck mass is completely determined by the breaking of the scaling symmetry in the field theory sector. The Higgs-like field which breaks the symmetry with…
Inflation based on scalar fields which are non-minimally coupled to gravity has been proposed as a way to unify inflation with weak-scale physics, with the inflaton being identified with the Higgs boson or other weak-scale scalar article.…
According to the standard lore, a prolonged inflation leaves a quantum field theory in a cold, low entropy state. Thus, some mechanism is needed to reheat this post-inflationary state, leaving a hot, thermal, radiation-dominated Universe.…
If the conformal invariance of electromagnetism is broken during inflation, then primordial magnetic fields may be produced. If this symmetry breaking is generated by the coupling between electromagnetism and a scalar field---e.g. the…
Loop quantum cosmology provides a nice solution of avoiding the big bang singularity through a big bounce mechanism in the high energy region. In loop quantum cosmology an inflationary universe is emergent after the big bounce, no matter…
A Gauss-Bonnet term naturally appears in the action for gravity when one considers the existence of space time with dimensions more than 1+3. A variety of inflationary models can be obtained within such a framework, once the scale factor…
The origin of magnetic fields observed on both astrophysical and cosmological scales is a compelling problem that has the potential to shed light on the early Universe. We analytically investigate inflationary magnetogenesis in scenarios…
Flat directions in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) can become unstable due to radiative corrections, and the global minimum of the (zero temperature) potential can lie at large values of the squark and/or slepton fields.…
Inflation, as currently understood, requires the presence of fields with very flat potentials. Supersymmetric models in which supersymmetry breaking is communicated by supergravity naturally yield such fields, but the scales are typically…
We discuss the issue of setting appropriate initial conditions for inflation. Specifically, we consider natural inflation model and discuss the fine tuning required for setting almost homogeneous initial conditions over a region of order…
In a previous paper we proposed a new approach to the beginning of inflation -- a lingering universe. The universe begins in a lingering state with a nearly vanishing Hubble parameter. This calls into question the absolute age of the…
We investigate a class of models of topological inflation in which a super-Hubble-sized global monopole seeds inflation. These models are attractive since inflation starts from rather generic initial conditions, but their not so attractive…
The basic workings of inflationary models are summarized, along with the arguments that strongly suggest that our universe is the product of inflation. It is argued that essentially all inflationary models lead to (future-)eternal…
In the context of supersymmetric models, we analyze the production of topological defects at the end of inflation driven by a conjugate pair of inflaton fields which are non-singlets under the continuous symmetry group of the theory. We…
We analyse the process of reheating the Universe in the electroweak theory where the Higgs field plays a role of the inflaton. We estimate the maximal temperature of the Universe and fix the initial conditions for radiation-dominated phase…
Modern physics has unlocked a number of mysteries regarding the early Universe, such as the baryogenesis, the unification of the strong and electroweak forces and the nucleosynthesis. However, understanding the very early Universe, close to…