Related papers: Cosmological constraints on string scale and coupl…
Recently observational lower bounds on the strength of cosmic magnetic fields were reported, based on gamma-ray flux from distant blazars. If inflation is responsible for the generation of such magnetic fields then the inflation energy…
The ability to test and constrain theories of cosmic inflation will advance substantially over the next decade. Key data sources include cosmic microwave background (CMB) measurements and observations of the distribution of matter at…
The observed power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) is consistent with inflationary cosmology, which predicts a nearly scale-invariant power spectrum of quantum fluctuations of the inflaton field as they exit the Hubble…
Recent tentative findings of non-Gaussian structure in the COBE-DMR dataset have triggered renewed attention to candidate models from which such intrinsic signature could arise. In the framework of slow roll inflation with built-in non…
We present constraints on a cosmic string network with a measurement of weak gravitational lensing from CMB temperature map. The cosmic string network between observer and last scattering surface of CMB photons generates vector and/or…
By compactifying a critical bosonic string theory on an internal non-flat space with a constant volume, we study the role played by the closed string tachyon in the cosmology of the effective four-dimensional space-time. The effective…
In universes with significant curvature or cosmological constant, cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies are created very recently via the Rees-Sciama or integrated Sachs-Wolfe effects. This causes the CMB anisotropies to become…
We try to constrain the noncommutativity length scale of the theoretical model given in Ref. [1] using the observational data from ACBAR, CBI and five year WMAP. The noncommutativity parameter is not constrained by WMAP data, however ACBAR…
In some instances, e.g. near phase transitions, thermodynamic fluctuations become macroscopically relevant, and relative amplitudes grow far above the standard $N^{-1/2}$ scale, with $N$ the number of particles. Such large fluctuations are…
We simulate the anisotropy in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) induced by cosmic strings. By numerically evolving a network of cosmic strings we generate full-sky CMB temperature anisotropy maps. Based on $192$ maps, we compute the…
Using Monte Carlo simulations of perturbations induced by cosmic strings on the microwave background, we demonstrate the scale invariance of string fluctuation patterns. By comparing string-induced fluctuation patterns with gaussian random…
We study the covariance in the angular power spectrum estimates of CMB fluctuations when the primordial fluctuations are non-Gaussian. The non-Gaussian covariance comes from a nonzero connected four-point correlation function -- or the…
We forecast the ability of cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature and polarization datasets to constrain theories of eternal inflation using cosmic bubble collisions. Using the Fisher matrix formalism, we determine both the overall…
The interplay between string theory and early-universe cosmology offers promising avenues to explore high-energy regimes where the standard single-field slow-roll model may no longer provide an accurate description. One intriguing scenario…
Recent analyses of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) maps from the WMAP satellite have uncovered evidence for a hemispherical power anomaly, i.e. a dipole modulation of the CMB power spectrum at large angular scales with an amplitude of…
In this talk, I review briefly a scenario for the evolution of a string-inspired cosmological model, in which condensates of primordial gravitational waves (GW), formed at the very early eras after the Big Bang, are considered responsible…
We propose that several of the anomalies that have been observed at large angular scales in the CMB have a common origin in a cosmic bounce that took place before the inflationary era. The bounce introduces a new physical scale in the…
The presence of a dipolar statistical anisotropy in the spectrum of cosmic microwave background (CMB) fluctuations was reported by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), and has recently been confirmed in the Planck 2013 analysis…
Recent measurements of the temperature fluctuations of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation from the WMAP satellite provide indication of a non-Gaussian behavior. Although the observed feature is small, it is detectable and…
We study the primordial non-Gaussinity predicted from simple models of inflation with a linear potential and superimposed oscillations. This generic form of the potential is predicted by the axion monodromy inflation model, that has…