Related papers: Back-Reaction and the Trans-Planckian Problem of I…
We consider an inflationary universe model in which the phase of accelerated expansion was preceded by a non-singular bounce and a period of contraction which involves a phase of deceleration. We follow fluctuations which exit the Hubble…
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…
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…
Because of the non-linearity of the Einstein equations, the cosmological fluctuations which are generated during inflation on a wide range of wavelengths do not evolve independently. In particular, to second order in perturbation theory,…
This review article aims at presenting the theory of inflation. We first describe the background spacetime behavior during the slow-roll phase and analyze how inflation ends and the Universe reheats. Then, we present the theory of…
Quantum gravitational back-reaction offers the potential of simultaneously resolving the problem of the cosmological constant and providing a natural model of inflation in which scalars play no special role. In this model inflation begins…
We calculate the back-reaction of long wavelength cosmological perturbations on a general relativistic measure of the local expansion rate of the Universe. Specifically, we consider a cosmological model in which matter is described by two…
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…
We study the effects which the back-reaction of long wavelength fluctuations exert on stochastic inflation. In the cases of power-law and Starobinsky inflation these effects are too weak to terminate the stochastic growth of the inflaton…
We show how a radiation dominated universe subject to space-time quantization may give rise to inflation as the radiation temperature exceeds the Planck temperature. We consider dispersion relations with a maximal momentum (i.e. a mimimum…
We study the behavior of large-scale (cosmological) modes of back-reaction effects during inflation. We find that the group of modes which describes the very large-scale fluctuations of energy density during inflation due to back-reaction…
The presence of cosmological perturbations affects the background metric and matter configuration in which the perturbations propagate. This effect, studied a long time ago for gravitational waves, also is operational for scalar…
We investigate whether a recently proposed modulation of the power spectrum of primordial density fluctuations generated through transplankian (maybe stringy) effects during inflation can be observed. We briefly review the mechanism leading…
Space-based missions studying the cosmic microwave background (CMB) have progressively refined the parameter space in conventional models of inflation shortly ($\sim 10^{-37}$ seconds) after the big bang. While most inflationary scenarios…
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…
The implementation of a Planck-scale high frequency and short wavelength cutoff in quantum theories on expanding backgrounds may have potentially nontrivial implications, such as the breaking of local Lorentz invariance and the existence of…
The presence of cosmological fluctuations influences the background cosmology in which the perturbations evolve. This back-reaction arises as a second order effect in the cosmological perturbation expansion. The effect is cumulative in the…
Cosmological perturbations in an expanding universe back-react on the space-time in which they propagate. Calculations to lowest non-vanishing order in perturbation theory indicate that super-Hubble-scale fluctuations act as a negative and…
In the present paper we discuss how trans-Planckian physics affects inflationary vacuum fluctuations and primordial density perturbations. The trans-Planckian problem during inflation has been widely discussed in literature, but it is still…
We study the renormalized energy-momentum tensor of cosmological scalar fluctuations during the slow-rollover regime for power-law inflation and find that it is characterized by a negative energy density at the leading order, with the same…