Related papers: Graceful Exit in String Cosmology
The string effective action at tree level contains, in its bosonic sector, the Einstein-Hilbert term, the dilaton, and the axion, besides scalar and gauge fields coming from the Ramond-Ramond sector. The reduction to four dimensions brings…
String cosmology aims at providing a reliable description of the very early Universe in the regime where standard-model physics is no longer appropriate, and where we can safely apply the basic ingredients of superstring models such as…
We consider the cosmological evolution of the three-brane in the background of type IIB string theory. For two different backgrounds which give nontrivial dilaton profile we have derived the Friedman-like equations. These give the…
We exhibit a mechanism which dynamically adjusts cosmological constant toward $0^+$. The adjustment is quantum-mechanical, discharging cosmological constant in random discrete steps. It renders de Sitter space unstable, and triggers its…
The dynamics of typical phase transitions is studied out of equilibrium in weakly coupled inflaton-type scalar field theories in Minkowski space. The shortcomings of the effective potential and equilibrium descriptions are pointed out. A…
A Gauss-Bonnet dark energy model is considered, which is inspired in string/M-theory and takes also into account quantum contributions. Those are introduced from a conformal quantum anomaly. The corresponding solutions for the Hubble rate,…
The equation which governs the temporal evolution of a gravitational wave (GW) in curved space-time can be treated as the Schrodinger equation for a particle moving in the presence of an effective potential. When GWs propagate in an…
Progress on string theory in curved spacetimes since 1992 are reviewed. After a short introduction on strings in Minkowski and curved spacetimes, we focus on strings in cosmological spacetimes. The classical behaviour of strings in FRW and…
We provide a thorough exposition of recent results on the quantum stabilization of cosmic strings. Stabilization occurs through the coupling to a heavy fermion doublet in a reduced version of the standard model. The study combines the…
Quasi-conformal models are an appealing scenario that can offer naturally a strongly supercooled phase transition and a period of thermal inflation in the early Universe. A crucial aspect for the viability of these models is how the…
The decay rate of metastable states is determined at high temperatures by thermal activation, whereas at temperatures close to zero quantum tunneling is relevant. At some temperature $T_{c}$ the transition from classical to…
We investigate the properties of a cosmological scenario which undergoes a gravitational phase transition at late times. In this scenario, the Universe evolves according to general relativity in the standard, hot Big Bang picture until a…
In the context of a cosmological string model describing the propagation of strings in a time-dependent Robertson-Walker background space-time, we show that the asymptotic acceleration of the Universe can be identified with the square of…
The spectrum of gravitational waves that have been produced in inflation is modified during cosmological transitions. Large drops in the number of relativistic particles, like during the QCD transition or at $e^+e^-$ annihilation, lead to…
We describe the ``deflationary'' evolution from an initial de Sitter phase to a subsequent Friedmann-Lema\^{\i}tre-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) period as a specific non-equilibrium configuration of a self-interacting gas. The transition dynamics…
We show that classicality emerges during quantum phase transitions due to parametric interactions without coupling to environments. The Wigner functions are explicitly calculated for the Gaussian vacuum, number, and thermal states of a free…
We investigate $(n+1)$-dimensional string-dilaton cosmology with effective dilaton potential in presence of perfect-fluid matter.We get exact solutions parametrized by the constant $\gam$ of the state equation $p=(\gam-1)\rho$, the spatial…
We study the time evolution of small classical perturbations in a gauge invariant way for a complex scalar field in the early zero curvature Friedmann-Lema\^{\i}tre universe. We, thus, generalize the analysis which has been done so far for…
The production of a background of super-horizon curvature perturbations with the appropriate (red) spectrum needed to trigger the cosmic anisotropies observed on large scales is associated, in the context of pre-big bang inflation, with a…
We show that in generic no-scale models in string theory, the flat, expanding cosmological evolutions found at the quantum level can be attracted to a "quantum no-scale regime", where the no-scale structure is restored asymptotically. In…