Related papers: Non-Topological Inflation from Embedded Defects
We present a general set-up for inflation in string theory where the inflaton field corresponds to Wilson lines in compact space in the presence of magnetic fluxes. T-dualities and limits on the value of the magnetic fluxes relate this…
Braneworld inflation on the resolved warped deformed conifold is represented by the dynamics of a D3-brane probe with the world volume of a brane spanning the large dimensions of the observable Universe. This model was recently proposed as…
In this thesis, consisting of two main parts, we study observational signatures of cosmic (super)strings in the context of D-brane inflation and properties of scalar perturbations on generic homogeneous inflating backgrounds. In the first…
We propose an alternative formulation of tachyon inflation using the geometrical tachyon arising from the time dependent motion of a BPS $D3$-brane in the background geometry due to $k$ parallel $NS$5-branes arranged around a ring of radius…
We propose an alternative scenario to cosmic inflation for producing the initial seeds of cosmic structures. The cosmological fluctuations are generated by thermal fluctuation of the energy density of the ideal string gas in three compact…
An overview is presented of some cosmological aspects of string theory. Recent developments are emphasised, especially the attempts to derive inflation or alternatives to inflation from the dynamics of branes in string theory. Time…
We discuss a calculable version of brane inflation, in which a set of parallel D-brane and anti-D-brane worlds, initially displaced in extra dimension, slowly attract each other. In the effective four-dimensional theory this slow motion of…
We present a mechanism for exit from inflation and reheating using the AdS/CFT correspondence. A cosmological evolution is induced on a probe D3-brane as it moves in a black D-brane background of type-0 string theory. If the tachyon field…
Thermal inflation was proposed as a mechanism to dilute the density of cosmological moduli. Thermal inflation is driven by a complex scalar field possessing a large vacuum expectation value and a very flat potential, called a `flaton'. Such…
In the context of colliding brane worlds I discuss a toy cosmological model, developed in collaboration with E. Gravanis, which arguably produces inflation and a relaxing to zero cosmological ``constant'' hierarchically small as compared to…
We study an effective four-dimensional theory with an action with two scalar fields minimally coupled to gravity, and with a matter action which couples to the two scalar fields via an overall field-dependent coefficient in the action. Such…
In this paper, we demonstrate that a phenomenon described as "topological inflation" during which inflation occurs inside the core of topological defects, has a non-topological counterpart. This appears in a simple set-up containing…
We present a scenario where brane inflation arises more generically. We start with D3 and anti-D3-branes at the infrared ends of two different throats. This setup is a natural consequence of the assumption that in the beginning we have a…
We investigate the embedding of brane inflation into stable compactifications of string theory. At first sight a warped compactification geometry seems to produce a naturally flat inflaton potential, evading one well-known difficulty of…
We describe a model of P-term inflation on D5 branes wrapped on resolved and deformed $A_n$ type singularities. On the brane world--volume the resolution and deformation of the singularity correspond to an anomalous D-term and a linear term…
We study the cosmological implications of including angular motion in the DBI brane inflation scenario. The non-canonical kinetic terms of the Dirac-Born-Infeld action give an interesting alternative to slow roll inflation, and cycling…
I review the recent 5D self-tuning solutions of the cosmological constant problem, and try to unify two cosmological constant problems within the framework of the self-tuning solutions. One problem, the large cosmological constant needed…
We study the possibility of extended inflation in the effective theory of gravity from strings compactified to four dimensions and find that it strongly depends on the mechanism of supersymmetry breaking. We consider a general class of…
We examine the cosmological effects of the Hagedorn phase in models where the observable universe is pictured as a D-brane. It is shown that, even in the absence of a cosmological constant, winding modes cause a negative `pressure' that can…
Supersymmetry is the most natural framework for physics above the TeV scale, and the corresponding framework for early-Universe cosmology, including inflation, is supergravity. No-scale supergravity emerges from generic string…