Related papers: String theoretic axion coupling and the evolution …
We survey observational constraints on the parameter space of inflation and axions and map out two allowed windows: the classic window and the inflationary anthropic window. The cosmology of the latter is particularly interesting;…
I report recent studies on the evolution of perturbations in the context of the ``pre-big-bang" scenario typical of string cosmology, with emphasis on the formation of a stochastic background of relic photons and gravitons, and its possible…
The backreaction of structure formation influences the cosmological evolution equation for the homogenous and isotropic average metric. In a cold dark matter universe this effect leads only to small corrections unless a substantial fraction…
$SU(2)$ gauge fields can generate large gravitational waves during inflation, if they are coupled to an axion which can be either the inflaton or a spectator field. The shape of the produced tensor power spectrum $\mathcal{P}_h$ depends on…
We investigate the imprint of post-inflationary evolution on primordial cosmological correlators by relaxing the standard assumption of instantaneous reheating. We compute the power spectrum and bispectrum for a conformally coupled and…
At its very beginning, the universe is believed to have grown exponentially in size via the mechanism of inflation. The almost scale-invariant density perturbation spectrum predicted by inflation is strongly supported by cosmological…
The original axion natural inflation model predicts a tensor-to-scalar ratio exceeding experimental limits. Conversely, in aligned axion inflation, inflation can proceed along trajectories emerging from near a saddle point of the two-field…
If cosmic magnetic fields are indeed produced during inflation, they are likely to be correlated with the scalar metric perturbations that are responsible for the Cosmic Microwave Background anisotropies and Large Scale Structure. Within an…
We study preheating in theories where the inflaton couples derivatively to scalar and gauge fields. Such couplings may dominate in natural models of inflation, in which the flatness of the inflaton potential is related to an approximate…
We investigate the effects of cosmological expansion on the spectrum of small-scale structure on a cosmic string. We simulate the evolution of a string with two modes that differ in wavelength by one order of magnitude. Once the short mode…
We present a set of equations describing the evolution of the scalar-type cosmological perturbation in a gravity with general quadratic order curvature coupling terms. Equations are presented in a gauge ready form, thus are ready to…
Rotations of an axion field in field space provide a natural origin for an era of kination domination, where the energy density is dominated by the kinetic term of the axion field, preceded by an early era of matter domination. Remarkably,…
The nonlinear evolution of matter clustering induces temperature anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background. The fluctuations in temperature are produced at a relatively low redshift, $z\simlt 10$, and consequently are not affected by…
Several pulsar timing arrays including NANOGrav, EPTA, PPTA, and CPTA have recently reported the observation of a stochastic background of gravitational wave spectrum in the nano-Hz frequencies. An inflationary interpretation of this…
We consider the evolution of cosmological perturbations during radion stabilization, which we assume to happen after a period of inflation in the early universe. Concentrating on the Randall-Sundrum brane world scenario, we find that if…
The apparent alignment of the cosmic microwave background multipoles on large scales challenges the standard cosmological model. Scalar field inflation is isotropic and cannot account for the observed alignment. We explore the imprints, a…
We report that axions and photons exhibit instability in the presence of cosmic strings that are carrying magnetic flux in their core. The strength of the instability is determined by the symmetry breaking scale of the cosmic string theory.…
Inflationary cosmology explains the homogeneity and large-scale structure of the universe through a brief epoch of accelerated expansion following the Big Bang. Cyclic cosmologies, in contrast, describe a universe undergoing successive…
Kination denotes an era in the cosmological history corresponding to an equation of state $\omega=+1$ such that the total energy density of the universe redshifts as the sixth inverse power of the scale factor. This arises if the universe…
We have studied preheating of field perturbations in a 3-dimensional lattice including the effect of scalar metric perturbations, in two generic models of inflation: chaotic inflation with a quartic potential, and standard hybrid inflation.…