Related papers: Cosmological Perturbations from a New-Physics Hype…
The theory of cosmological perturbations has become a cornerstone of modern quantitative cosmology since it is the framework which provides the link between the models of the very early Universe such as the inflationary Universe scenario…
Quantum-mechanical initial conditions for the fluctuations of the geometry can be assigned in excess of a given physical wavelength. The two-point functions of the scalar and tensor modes of the geometry will then inherit corrections…
The accelerated expansion of space during the period of cosmological inflation leads to trans-Planckian issues which need to be addressed. Most importantly, the physical wavelength of fluctuations which are studied at the present time by…
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…
Apart from the assumption that the inflation started at an infinite time in the past, the more realistic initial state of the quantum fluctuations is described by a mixed quantum state imposed at a finite value of the initial time. One of…
In the standard inflationary paradigm the inhomogeneities observed in the CMB arise from quantum fluctuations of an initially homogeneous and isotropic vacuum state. This picture suffers from two well-known weaknesses. First, it assumes…
It is proposed that if quantum states of space-time are coherent on null surfaces, holographic Planck-scale fluctuations of inflationary horizons dominate the formation of primordial scalar curvature perturbations. It is shown that the…
For most initial conditions, cosmologically relevant physical modes were trans-planckian at the bounce time, often by many magnitude orders. We improve the usual loop quantum cosmology calculation of the primordial power spectra -- in the…
We consider a minimum uncertainty vacuum choice at a fixed energy scale Lambda as an effective description of trans-Planckian physics, and discuss its implications for the linear perturbations of a massless scalar field in power-law…
We contrast two approaches to calculating trans-Planckian corrections to the inflationary perturbation spectrum: the New Physics Hypersurface [NPH] model, in which modes are normalized when their physical wavelength first exceeds a critical…
We consider a quantum deformation of the wave equation on a cosmological background as a toy-model for possible trans-Planckian effects. We compute the power spectrum of scalar and tensor fluctuations for power-law inflation, and find a…
In the framework of Inflationary theory, the assumption that the quantum state of the perturbations is a non-vacuum state leads to a difficulty: non-vacuum initial states imply, in general, a large energy density of inflaton field quanta,…
It has recently been suggested that Planck scale physics may effect the evolution of cosmological fluctuations in the early stages of cosmological inflation in a non-trivial way, leading to an excited state for modes whose wavelength is…
Contents: Introduction. The Present State of the Universe. What Can We Expect From a Complete Cosmological Theory? An Overview of Quantum Effects in Cosmology. Parametric (Superadiabatic) Amplification of Classical Waves. Graviton Creation…
An analysis of the decoherence of quantum fluctuations shows that production of classical adiabatic density perturbations may not take place in models of power-law inflation with power 1< p < 3. Some consequences for models of extended…
There are good indications that fundamental physics gives rise to a modified space-momentum uncertainty relation that implies the existence of a minimum length scale. We implement this idea in the scalar field theory that describes density…
The theory of cosmological perturbations is the main tool which connects theories of the early universe (based on new fundamental physics such as string theory) with cosmological observations. In these lectures, I will provide an…
The theory of cosmological fluctuations assumes that the pre-inflationary state of the universe was the quantum vacuum of a scalar field(s) coupled to gravity. The observed cosmic microwave background fluctuations are then interpreted as…
Due to the quasi-exponential red-shifting which occurs during an inflationary period in the very early Universe, wavelengths which at the present time correspond to cosmological lengths are in general sub-Planckian during the early stages…
Predictions from early universe cosmology typically concern primordial perturbations generated during epochs where effects arising from the quantum nature of gravity may be important; quantum vacuum fluctuations being stretched to…