Related papers: Inflating Defects
We review locked inflation and we critically address phenomenological and consistency issues thathave appeared in the literature. A natural window of opportunity is found for the original scenario.Moreover, a simple way to enlarge the…
The standard model of cosmology is based on the hot Big Bang theory and the inflationary paradigm. Recent precise observations of the temperature and polarization anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background and the matter distribution…
The potential role of cosmic topological defects has raised interest in the astrophysical community for many years now. In this set of notes, we give an introduction to the subject of cosmic topological defects and some of their possible…
New inflationary solutions to the Einstein equation are explicitly constructed in a simple five-dimensional model with an orbifold extra dimension $S^1/Z_2$. We consider inflation caused by cosmological constants for the five-dimensional…
Holography is expected as one of the promising descriptions of quantum general relativity. We present a model for a cosmological system involving two holographic screens and find that their equilibrium exactly yields a standard…
The standard big bang cosmological model and the history of the early universe according to the grand unified theories of strong, weak and electromagnetic interactions are summarized. The shortcomings of big bang are discussed together with…
Many particle physics models of matter admit solutions corresponding to stable or long-lived topological defects. In the context of standard cosmology it is then unavoidable that such defects will form during phase transitions in the very…
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…
In this paper we investigate, from the dynamical systems perspective, the evolution of a Kantowski-Sachs metric in a generic class of $f(R)$ models. We present conditions (i. e., differentiability conditions, existence of minima, monotony…
Attempts to apply quantum collapse theories to Cosmology and cosmic inflation are reviewed. These attempts are motivated by the fact that the theory of cosmological perturbations of quantum-mechanical origin suffers from the single outcome…
We study how the initial inhomogeneities of the spatial curvature affect the onset of inflation in the closed universe. We consider a cosmological model which contains a radiation and a cosmological constant. In order to treat the…
The conventional $\Lambda$CDM cosmological model supplemented by the inflation concept describes the Universe very well. However, there are still a few concerns: new Planck data impose constraints on the shape of the inflaton potential,…
We have presented previously a general treatment of Starobinsky-like inflation in no-scale supergravity where the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r = 3(1 - n_s)^2$, and $n_s$ is the tilt of the scalar perturbations. In particular, we have shown how…
I present a brief review of astro-ph/0406099, which argues that there is a limit on the number of efolds of inflation which are observable in a universe which undergoes an eternally accelerated expansion in the future. Such an acceleration…
A new family of inflation models is introduced and studied. The models are characterised by a scalar potential which, far from the origin, approximates an inflationary plateau, while near the origin becomes monomial, as in chaotic…
We show that homogeneous and isotropic cosmological models with radiation and scalar field have, in general, two possible chaotic exits to inflation. These models may describe the early stages of inflation. The central point of our analysis…
The linear cosmological perturbation theory of almost homogeneous and isotropic perfect fluid and scalar field universes is reconsidered and formally simplified. Using the existence of a covariant conserved quantity on large perturbation…
This paper investigates Starobinsky's model of inflation driven by the trace anomaly of conformally coupled matter fields. This model does not suffer from the problem of contrived initial conditions that occurs in most models of inflation…
We consider cosmological inflation generated by a scalar field slowly rolling off from a de Sitter maximum of its potential. The models belong to the class of hilltop models and represent the most general model of this kind in which the…
Recent high precision data by WMAP and SDSS have provided strong evidence to suggest that the universe is nearly flat. They are also making it possible to probe the topology of the universe. Motivated by these results, we have recently…