Related papers: The Measure Problem in Cosmology
A new class of gravity-matter models defined in terms of two independent non-Riemannian volume forms (alternative generally covariant integration measure densities) on the space-time manifold are studied in some detail. These models involve…
We study cosmological solutions for the very early universe beginning at the Planck scale for a universe containing radiation, curvature and, as a simplification of a possible scalar field potential, a cosmological constant term. The…
We generalise Langlois' Hamiltonian treatment of gauge-invariant linear cosmological perturbations to a cosmological setting with multiple scalar fields minimally coupled to gravity. We review the Hamilton-Jacobi-like technique for a…
In the present thesis, using an effective field theory point of view, we explore theories of single-field inflation where higher derivative operators become relevant, affecting in a novel way the dynamics and therefore the observations. For…
Our universe may be contained in one among a diverging number of bubbles that nucleate within an eternally inflating multiverse. A promising measure to regulate the diverging spacetime volume of such a multiverse is the scale-factor cutoff,…
This paper discusses the problem of inflation in the context of Friedmann-Robertson-Walker Cosmology. We show how, after a simple change of variables, one can quantize the problem in a way which parallels the classical discussion. The…
We study a scale-invariant model of quadratic gravity with a non-minimally coupled scalar field. We focus on cosmological solutions and find that scale invariance is spontaneously broken and a mass scale naturally emerges. Before the…
After commenting briefly on the role of the typicality assumption in science, we advocate a phenomenological approach to the cosmological measure problem. Like any other theory, a measure should be simple, general, well-defined, and…
Although the paradigm of inflation has been extensively studied to demonstrate how macroscopic inhomogeneities in our universe originate from quantum fluctuations, most of the established literature ignores the crucial role that…
The Cosmological Principle, which states that the Universe is homogeneous and isotropic (when averaged on large scales), is the foundational assumption of Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) cosmologies such as the current standard…
After introducing gauge-invariant cosmological perturbation theory we give an improved set of governing equations for multiple fluids including energy transfer. Having defined adiabatic and entropic perturbations we derive the…
Quantum effects play an essential role in modern cosmology. Perhaps the most striking example comes from large-scale structures, generally assumed to originate from vacuum quantum fluctuations and stretched by an expansion phase. Inflation…
The standard model of cosmology is based on the hot Big Bang theory and the inflationary paradigm. Recent precise observations of the temperature and polarization anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background and the matter distribution…
We study a generality of an inflationary scenario by integrating the Einstein equations numerically in a plane-symmetric spacetime. We consider the inhomogeneous spacetimes due to (i) localized gravitational waves with a positive…
Cosmological inflation is a popular paradigm for understanding Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMBR); however, it faces many conceptual challenges. An alternative mechanism to inflation for generating an almost scale-invariant…
We examine the classical dynamics of multifield inflation models with quadratic potentials. Such models are shown to have inflationary attractors in phase space, consistent with the stretching of phase space trajectories along the volume…
We present a new cosmological model, based on the holographic principle, which shares many of the virtues of inflation. The very earliest semiclassical era of the universe is dominated by a dense gas of black holes, with equation of state…
We find that general relativity can be naturally free of cosmological singularities. Several nonsingular models are currently available that either assume ad hoc matter contents, or are nonsingular only over a sector of solution space of…
We study the quantum measurement problem in the context of an infinite, statistically uniform space, as could be generated by eternal inflation. It has recently been argued that when identical copies of a quantum measurement system exist,…
We show that most of cutoff measures of the multiverse violate some of the basic properties of probability theory when applied repeatedly to predict the results of local experiments. Starting from minimal assumptions, such as Markov…