Related papers: Pre-Big Bang Cosmology and Quantum Fluctuations
A possibility of existence of ultra-heavy (quasi)stable particles, mechanisms leading to their large life-time, their production in the early universe, and cosmological manifestations are reviewed.
We examine how the consequences which follow from a recent model, both in cosmology and at the elementary particle level have since been observationally and experimentally confirmed. Some of the considerations of the model are also…
Quantum effects play an essential role in modern cosmology. Perhaps the most striking example comes from large-scale structures, generally assumed to originate from vacuum quantum fluctuations and stretched by an expansion phase. Inflation…
The possibility that the universe may have a fundamental and positive cosmological constant has motivated an interesting cosmological model, in which initially the universe is in a cosmological constant sea, then the local quantum…
The standard inflationary version of the origin of the cosmic structure as the result of the quantum fluctuations during the inflationary stage is less than fully satisfactory: how exactly does the Universe transit from a homogeneous and…
This thesis is dedicated to analysing the generation and destruction of quantum correlations in the context of inflationary cosmology and an experiment of 'analogue' preheating. Inflation is a phase of accelerated expansion of the Universe,…
We present a macroscopic model of the decay of a coherent classical scalar field into statistical fluctuations through the process of parametric amplification. We solve the field theory (henceforth,"microscopic") model to leading order in a…
Primordial fluctuations in inflationary cosmology acquire classical properties through decoherence when their wavelengths become larger than the Hubble scale. Although decoherence is effective, it is not complete, so a significant part of…
In the context of Quantum Cosmology and the Wheeler-DeWitt equation we investigate the possible effects of a non semiclassical wave-function of the universe on the evolution of the inflationary perturbations. These are associated with the…
The Planck collaboration has provided us rich information about the early universe, and a host of new observational missions will soon shed further light on the `anomalies' that appear to exist on the largest angular scales. From a quantum…
Cosmological perturbations generated quantum-mechanically (as a particular case, during inflation) possess statistical properties of squeezed quantum states. The power spectra of the perturbations are modulated and the angular distribution…
Perhaps standard effective field theory arguments are right, and vacuum fluctuations really do generate a huge cosmological constant. I show that if one does not assume homogeneity and an arrow of time at the Planck scale, a very large…
Classical and quantum gravitational instabilities, can, respectively, inflate and warm up a primordial Universe satisfying a superstring-motivated principle of "Asymptotic Past Triviality". A physically viable big bang is thus generated…
Cosmic inflation is commonly assumed to be driven by quantum fields. Quantum mechanics predicts phenomena such as quantum fluctuations and tunneling of the field. Here we show an example of a quantum interference effect which goes beyond…
The particle production process is reviewed, through which cosmic inflation can produce a scale invariant superhorizon spectrum of perturbations of suitable fields starting from their quantum fluctuations. Afterwards, in the context of the…
The theory of cosmological perturbations is extended to spacetimes displaying isotropic expansion but anisotropic curvature. The perturbed Einstein equation and Boltzmann equations for massless and massive particles are derived in a general…
The spectrum of cosmological perturbations in the context of the one-bubble open inflation model is discussed, taking into account fluctuations of the metric. We find that, quite generically,thin wall single field models have no…
The observability of primordial cosmic fluctuations does not require a geometric horizon $H^{-1}$, which is exceeded temporarily by the wavelength of fluctuations. The primordial information can be protected against later thermal washout…
Primordial nucleosynthesis is considered a success story of the standard big bang (SBB) cosmology. The cosmological and elementary particle physics parameters are believed to be severely constrained by the requirement of correct abundances…
What is the major difference between large and small systems? At small length-scales the dynamics is dominated by fluctuations, whereas at large scales fluctuations are irrelevant. Therefore, any thermodynamically consistent description of…