Related papers: Power Spectrum and Signatures for Cascade Inflatio…
We point out three correlated predictions of the axion monodromy inflation model: large amplitude of gravitational waves, suppression of power on horizon scales and on scales relevant for the formation of dwarf galaxies. While these…
We study single-field inflationary models with steep step-like features in the potential that lead to the temporary violation of the slow-roll conditions during the evolution of the inflaton. These features enhance the power spectrum of the…
We reconsider trans-Planckian corrections to inflationary spectra by taking into account a physical effect which has been overlooked and which could have important consequences. We assume that the short length scale characterizing the new…
Matrix inflation, or M-flation, is a string theory motivated inflationary model with three scalar field matrices and gauge fields in the adjoint representation of the $\mathbf{U}(N)$ gauge group. One of these $3N^2$ scalars appears as the…
We investigate multi-field inflationary scenarios with fields that drop out of the model in a staggered fashion. This feature is natural in certain multi-field inflationary setups within string theory; for instance, it can manifest itself…
When electric-type flux threads compact extra dimensions, a quantum nucleation event can break a flux line and initiate a cascade that unwinds many units of flux. Here, we present a novel mechanism for inflation based on this phenomenon.…
For the original hybrid inflation model, we calculate the power spectrum of curvature perturbations generated during the waterfall, taking into account the contribution of entropic modes. We study the regime where the potential is very…
We propose a "feature-scattering" mechanism to explain the cosmic microwave background cold spot seen from WMAP and Planck maps. If there are hidden features in the potential of multi-field inflation, the inflationary trajectory can be…
If the cosmological inflationary scenario took place in the cosmic landscape in string theory, the inflaton, the scalar mode responsible for inflation, would have meandered in a complicated multi-dimensional potential. We show that this…
We consider DBI inflation with a quadratic potential and the effect of trapped branes on the inflationary fluctuations. When going through a trapped brane the effective potential of the inflaton receives a contribution whose effect is to…
We study the motion of a BPS D3-brane in the NS5-brane ring background. The radion field becomes tachyonic in this geometrical set up. We investigate the potential of this geometrical tachyon in the cosmological scenario for inflation as…
Recently is has been suggested that the dearth of small halos around the Milky Way arises due to a modification of the primordial power spectrum of fluctuations from inflation. Such modifications would be expected to alter the formation of…
We show how the motion through the extra dimensions of a gas of branes and antibranes can, under certain circumstances, produce an era of inflation as seen by observers trapped on a 3-brane, with the inflaton being the inter-brane…
Slow-roll inflation can be studied as an effective field theory. The form of the inflaton potential consistent with the data is V(phi) = N M^4 w(phi/[sqrt{N} M_{Pl}]) where phi is the inflaton field, M is the inflation energy scale, and N ~…
We analyze the spectrum of density perturbations generated in models of the recently discovered "D-cceleration" mechanism of inflation. In this scenario, strong coupling quantum field theoretic effects sum to provide a DBI-like action for…
In a variety of inflation models the motion of the inflaton may trigger the production of some non-inflaton particles during inflation, for example via parametric resonance or a phase transition. Particle production during inflation leads…
In this paper we study gauged M-flation, an inflationary model in which inflation is driven by three NxN scalar field matrices in the adjoint representation of U(N) gauge group. We focus our study on the gauged M-flation model which could…
In the early Universe, energy stored in small-scale density perturbations is quickly dissipated by Silk-damping, a process that inevitably generates mu- and y-type spectral distortions of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). These…
We study slow-roll inflation on a three-brane in a five-dimensional bulk where the effects of energy loss from the brane due to graviton emission is included in a self-consistent manner. We explicitly derive the form of the energy loss term…
We build a number of integrable one--scalar spatially flat cosmologies, which play a natural role in inflationary scenarios, examine their behavior in several cases and draw from them some general lessons on this type of systems, whose…