Tensor-to-Scalar Ratio in Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld Inflation

We investigate the scalar perturbation of the inflation model driven by a massive-scalar field in Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld gravity. We focus on the perturbation at the attractor stage in which the first and the second slow-roll conditions are satisfied. The scalar perturbation exhibits the corrections to the chaotic inflation model in general relativity. We find that the tensor-to-scalar ratio becomes smaller than that of the usual chaotic inflation.Comment: 9 pages. revised version to appear in EPJC, with minor typo corrections. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1404.608

Spectral indices in Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld inflation

We investigate the scalar and tensor spectral indices of the quadratic inflation model in Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld (EiBI) gravity. We find that the EiBI corrections to the spectral indices are of second and first order in the slow-roll approximation for the scalar and tensor perturbations respectively. This is very promising since the quadratic inflation model in general relativity provides a very nice fit for the spectral indices. Together with the suppression of the tensor-to-scalar ratio EiBI inflation agrees well with the observational data.Comment: (v1) 9 pages, 1 figure; (v2) references added, to appear in Physical Review

Scalar perturbations of Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld braneworld

We consider the scalar perturbations of Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld braneworld models in this paper. The dynamical equation for the physical propagating degree of freedom $\xi(x^\mu,y)$ is achieved by using the Arnowitt-Deser-Misner decomposition method: $F_1(y) {\partial_y^2 \xi} + F_2(y){\partial_y \xi } + {\partial^{\mu}\partial_{\mu}}\xi=0$. We conclude that the solution is tachyonic-free and stable under scalar perturbations for $F_1(y)>0$ but unstable for $F_1(y)< 0$. The stability of a known analytic domain wall solution with the warp factor given by $a(y)= \text{sech}^{\frac{3}{{4p}}}(ky)$ is analyzed and it is shown that only the solution for $0<p<\sqrt{8/3}$ is stable.Comment: 16 pages, 1 figure, accepted by Physical Review

Born-Infeld gravity with a Brans-Dicke scalar

Recently proposed Born-Infeld (BI) theories of gravity assume a constant BI parameter ($\kappa$). However, no clear consensus exists on the sign and value of $\kappa$. Recalling the Brans-Dicke (BD) approach, where a scalar field was used to generate the gravitational constant $G$, we suggest an extension of Born-Infeld gravity with a similar Brans-Dicke flavor. Thus, a new action, with $\kappa$ elevated to a spacetime dependent real scalar field, is proposed. We illustrate this new theory in a cosmological setting with pressureless dust and radiation as matter. Assuming a functional form of $\kappa(t)$, we numerically obtain the scale factor evolution and other details of the background cosmology. It is known that BI gravity differs from general relativity (GR) in the strong-field regime but reduces to GR for intermediate and weak fields. Our studies in cosmology demonstrate how, with this new, scalar-tensor BI gravity, deviations from GR as well as usual BI gravity, may arise in the weak-field regime too. For example, we note a late-time acceleration without any dark energy contribution. Apart from such qualitative differences, we note that fixing the sign and value of $\kappa$ is no longer a necessity in this theory, though the origin of the BD scalar does remain an open question.Comment: 25 pages, 7 figures. Published versio

Born-Infeld inspired modifications of gravity

General Relativity has shown an outstanding observational success in the scales where it has been directly tested. However, modifications have been intensively explored in the regimes where it seems either incomplete or signals its own limit of validity. In particular, the breakdown of unitarity near the Planck scale strongly suggests that General Relativity needs to be modified at high energies and quantum gravity effects are expected to be important. This is related to the existence of spacetime singularities when the solutions of General Relativity are extrapolated to regimes where curvatures are large. In this sense, Born-Infeld inspired modifications of gravity have shown an extraordinary ability to regularise the gravitational dynamics, leading to non-singular cosmologies and regular black hole spacetimes in a very robust manner and without resorting to quantum gravity effects. This has boosted the interest in these theories in applications to stellar structure, compact objects, inflationary scenarios, cosmological singularities, and black hole and wormhole physics, among others. We review the motivations, various formulations, and main results achieved within these theories, including their observational viability, and provide an overview of current open problems and future research opportunities.Comment: 212 pages, Review under press at Physics Report

Cascading dust inflation in Born-Infeld gravity

In the framework of Born-Infeld inspired gravity theories, which deviates from General Relativity (GR) in the high curvature regime, we discuss the viability of Cosmic Inflation without scalar fields. For energy densities higher than the new mass scale of the theory, a gravitating dust component is shown to generically induce an accelerated expansion of the Universe. Within such a simple scenario, inflation gracefully exits when the GR regime is recovered, but the Universe would remain matter dominated. In order to implement a reheating era after inflation, we then consider inflation to be driven by a mixture of unstable dust species decaying into radiation. Because the speed of sound gravitates within the Born-Infeld model under consideration, our scenario ends up being predictive on various open questions of the inflationary paradigm. The total number of e-folds of acceleration is given by the lifetime of the unstable dust components and is related to the duration of reheating. As a result, inflation does not last much longer than the number of e-folds of deceleration allowing a small spatial curvature and large scale deviations to isotropy to be observable today. Energy densities are self-regulated as inflation can only start for a total energy density less than a threshold value, again related to the species' lifetime. Above this threshold, the Universe may bounce thereby avoiding a singularity. Another distinctive feature is that the accelerated expansion is of the superinflationary kind, namely the first Hubble flow function is negative. We show however that the tensor modes are never excited and the tensor-to-scalar ratio is always vanishing, independently of the energy scale of inflation.Comment: 28 pages, 4 figure