Related papers: Conformal Invariance, Accelerating Universe and Th…
On the occasion of a century from the proposal of General relativity by Einstein, I attempt to tackle some open issues in modern cosmology, via a toy but non-trivial model. Specifically, I would like to link together: (i) the smallness of…
One possible description of the very early stages of the evolution of the universe is provided by Chaotic Inflationary Cosmology. For that model the role of the inflaton field is played by quantum gravitational effects. We study if such a…
Inflation solves several cosmological problems at the classical and quantum level, with a strong agreement between the theoretical predictions of well-motivated inflationary models and observations. In this work, we study the corrections…
The covariant canonical transformation theory applied to the relativistic Hamiltonian theory of classical matter fields in dynamical space-time yields a novel (first order) gauge field theory of gravitation. The emerging field equations…
We show that scale invariance provides a solution to the fine tuning problem of the cosmological constant. We construct a generalization of the standard model of particle physics which displays exact quantum scale invariance. The matter…
The cosmological constant problem is examined under the assumption that the extrinsic curvature of the space-time contributes to the vacuum. A compensation mechanism based on a variable cosmological term is proposed. Under a suitable…
In recent years, the use of conformal transformation techniques has become widespread in the literature on gravitational theories alternative to general relativity, on cosmology, and on nonminimally coupled scalar fields. Typically, the…
We develop a new class of chaotic inflation models with spontaneously broken conformal invariance. Observational consequences of a broad class of such models are stable with respect to strong deformations of the scalar potential. This…
It has been suggested that by increasing the speed of light during the early universe various cosmological problems of standard big bang cosmology can be overcome, without requiring an inflationary phase. However, we find that as the Planck…
We point out that the standard formulation of the cosmological constant problem itself is problematic since it is trying to apply the very large scale homogeneous cosmological model to very small (Planck) scale phenomenon. At small scales,…
This paper investigates a scale-invariant inflationary model characterized by a scalar field non-minimally coupled to gravity and a curvature term quadratic in the Ricci scalar. The model's dynamic is analyzed using a full numerical…
Inflationary cosmology proposes that the early Universe undergoes accelerated expansion, driven, in simple scenarios, by a single scalar field, or inflaton. The form of the inflaton potential determines the initial spectra of density…
A central aspect of the cosmological constant problem is to understand why vacuum energy does not gravitate. In order to account for this observation, while allowing for nontrivial dynamics of the quantum vacuum, we motivate a novel…
The inflationary phase of the Universe is explored by proposing a toy model related to the scalar field, termed as {\it inflaton}. The potential part of the energy density in the said era is assumed to have a constant vacuum energy density…
Starting from pure multidimensional gravity with curvature-nonlinear terms but no matter fields in the initial action, we obtain a cosmological model with two effective scalar fields related to the size of two extra factor spaces. The model…
We show that it is possible to obtain inflation and also solve the cosmological constant problem. The theory is invariant under changes of the Lagrangian density $L$ to $L+const$. Then the constant part of a scalar field potential $V$…
We consider the cosmological application of a (variant of) relatively newly proposed model \cite{1609.06915} unifying inflation, dark energy, dark matter, and the Higgs mechanism. The model was originally defined using additional…
We outline a program with the potential to solve both the cosmological constant and quantum gravity problems within a single, comprehensive framework, one that is formulated entirely in four spacetime dimensions. The program is based on an…
It is well-known that quantum field theory (QFT) induces a huge value of the cosmological constant, $\Lambda$, which is outrageously inconsistent with cosmological observations. We review here some aspects of this fundamental theoretical…
We show that the phase transition from the decelerating universe to the accelerating universe, which is of relevance to the cosmological coincidence problem, is possible in the semiclassically quantized two-dimensional dilaton gravity by…