Related papers: Allowed parameter regions for a general inflation …
The pre-big bang scenario describes the evolution of the Universe from an initial state approaching the flat, cold, empty, string perturbative vacuum. The choice of such an initial state is suggested by the present state of our Universe if…
A small tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$ may lead to distinctive phenomenology of high-scale supersymmetry. Assuming the same origin of SUSY breaking between the inflation and visible sector, we show model independent features. The simplest…
Cosmic inflation provides a window to the highest energy densities accessible in nature, far beyond those achievable in any realistic terrestrial experiment. Theoretical insights into the inflationary era and its observational probes may…
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…
In most current models of inflation based on a weakly self-coupled scalar matter field minimally coupled to gravity, the period of inflation lasts so long that, at the beginning of the inflationary period, the physical wavelengths of…
We consider a physically viable cosmological model that has a field dependent Gauss-Bonnet coupling in its effective action, in addition to a standard scalar field potential. The presence of such terms in the four dimensional effective…
Natural (axionic) inflation provides a well-motivated and predictive scheme for the description of the early universe. It leads to sizeable primordial tensor modes and thus a high mass scale of the inflationary potential. Naively this seems…
Cosmological models with inflation and those with bounce have their own strengths and weaknesses. Here we construct a model in which a phase of bounce is followed by a viable inflationary phase. This incorporates several advantages of both…
We propose a mechanism for generating an inflationary phase in the early universe without resorting to any type of scalar field(s). Instead, this accelerated expansion is driven by a dynamical "cosmological constant" in the framework of…
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…
We discuss various models of inflationary universe with $\Omega \not = 1$. A homogeneous universe with $\Omega > 1$ may appear due to creation of the universe "from nothing" in the theories where the effective potential becomes very steep…
We present a new approach to constructing inflationary models in closed universes. Conformal embedding of closed-universe models in a de Sitter background suggests a quantisation condition on the available conformal time. This condition…
A model of cosmological inflation is proposed in which field space is a hyperbolic plane. The inflaton never slow-rolls, and instead orbits the bottom of the potential, buoyed by a centrifugal force. Though initial velocities redshift away…
We investigate whether inflation in the early universe can be induced by an extra component of a five-dimensional ${\rm U(1)}$ gauge field in the Randall-Sundrum warped spacetime or not. We show that an effective potential obtained by…
Many inflating spacetimes are likely to violate the weak energy condition, a key assumption of singularity theorems. Here we offer a simple kinematical argument, requiring no energy condition, that a cosmological model which is inflating --…
In this paper we show that certain types of cosmological brane configurations may induce topological inflation. In generic models for topological inflation, there is a strict bound for the potential of the inflaton field. Naively, it seems…
This article gives a brief overview of some of the theory behind the inflationary cosmology, and discusses prospects for constraining inflation using observations. Particular care is given to the question of falsifiability of inflation or…
It is very difficult to obtain a realistic model of a closed inflationary universe. Even if one fine-tunes the total number of e-folds to be sufficiently small, the resulting universe typically has large density perturbations on the scale…
We find the best-fit cosmological parameters for a scenario of inflation with only the sufficient amount of accelerated expansion for the $\lambda\phi^4$ potential. While for the simplest scenario of chaotic inflation all observable…
This note makes a self-contained exposition of the basic facts of big bang cosmology as they relate to inflation. The fundamental problems with that model are then explored. A quartic scalar potential model of inflation is evaluated which…