256 research outputs found
Supergravity Inflation on the Brane
We study N=1 Supergravity inflation in the context of the braneworld
scenario. Particular attention is paid to the problem of the onset of inflation
at sub-Planckian field values and the ensued inflationary observables. We find
that the so-called -problem encountered in supergravity inspired
inflationary models can be solved in the context of the braneworld scenario,
for some range of the parameters involved. Furthermore, we obtain an upper
bound on the scale of the fifth dimension, M_5 \lsim 10^{-3} M_P, in case the
inflationary potential is quadratic in the inflaton field, . If the
inflationary potential is cubic in , consistency with observational data
requires that .Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure, to appear in Phys. Rev.
Inflation with a constant ratio of scalar and tensor perturbation amplitudes
The single scalar field inflationary models that lead to scalar and tensor
perturbation spectra with amplitudes varying in direct proportion to one
another are reconstructed by solving the Stewart-Lyth inverse problem to
next-to-leading order in the slow-roll approximation.
The potentials asymptote at high energies to an exponential form,
corresponding to power law inflation, but diverge from this model at low
energies, indicating that power law inflation is a repellor in this case. This
feature implies that a fine-tuning of initial conditions is required if such
models are to reproduce the observations. The required initial conditions might
be set through the eternal inflation mechanism.
If this is the case, it will imply that the spectral indices must be nearly
constant, making the underlying model observationally indistinguishable from
power law inflation.Comment: 20 pages, 7 figures. Major changes to the Introduction following
referee's comments. One figure added. Some other minor changes. No conclusion
was modifie
Evidence against or for topological defects in the BOOMERanG data ?
The recently released BOOMERanG data was taken as ``contradicting topological
defect predictions''. We show that such a statement is partly misleading.
Indeed, the presence of a series of acoustic peaks is perfectly compatible with
a non-negligible topological defects contribution. In such a mixed perturbation
model (inflation and topological defects) for the source of primordial
fluctuations, the natural prediction is a slightly lower amplitude for the
Doppler peaks, a feature shared by many other purely inflationary models. Thus,
for the moment, it seems difficult to rule out these models with the current
data.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure. Some changes following extraordinarily slow
referee Reports and new data. Main results unchanged (sorry
Subtle changes in strain prior to sub-Plinian eruptions recorded by vault-housed extensometers during the 2011 activity at Shinmoe-dake, Kirishima volcano, Japan
Primeval Corrections to the CMB Anisotropies
We show that deviations of the quantum state of the inflaton from the thermal
vacuum of inflation may leave an imprint in the CMB anisotropies. The quantum
dynamics of the inflaton in such a state produces corrections to the
inflationary fluctuations, which may be observable. Because these effects
originate from IR physics below the Planck scale, they will dominate over any
trans-Planckian imprints in any theory which obeys decoupling. Inflation sweeps
away these initial deviations and forces its quantum state closer to the
thermal vacuum. We view this as the quantum version of the cosmic no-hair
theorem. Such imprints in the CMB may be a useful, independent test of the
duration of inflation, or of significant features in the inflaton potential
about 60 e-folds before inflation ended, instead of an unlikely discovery of
the signatures of quantum gravity. The absence of any such substructure would
suggest that inflation lasted uninterrupted much longer than
e-folds.Comment: 17 pages, latex, no figures; v3: added references and comments, final
version to appear in Phys. Rev.
N=1 Supergravity Chaotic Inflation in the Braneworld Scenario
We study a N=1 Supergravity chaotic inflationary model, in the context of the
braneworld scenario. It is shown that successful inflation and reheating
consistent with phenomenological constraints can be achieved via the new terms
in the Friedmann equation arising from brane physics. Interestingly, the model
satisfies observational bounds with sub-Planckian field values, implying that
chaotic inflation on the brane is free from the well known difficulties
associated with the presence of higher order non-renormalizable terms in the
superpotential. A bound on the mass scale of the fifth dimension, M_5 \gsim
1.3 \times 10^{-6} M_P, is obtained from the requirement that the reheating
temperature be higher than the temperature of the electroweak phase transition.Comment: 5 pages, 1 Table, Revtex
Adiabatic perturbations in pre big bang models: matching conditions and scale invariance
At low energy, the four-dimensional effective action of the ekpyrotic model
of the universe is equivalent to a slightly modified version of the pre big
bang model. We discuss cosmological perturbations in these models. In
particular we address the issue of matching the perturbations from a collapsing
to an expanding phase in full generality. We show that, generically, one
obtains for the spectrum of scalar perturbations in the original pre big
model (with vanishing potential). When an exponential potential for the dilaton
is included, a scale invariant spectrum () of adiabatic scalar
perturbations is produced under very generic matching conditions, both in a
modified pre big bang and ekpyrotic scenario. We also derive general results
valid for power law scale factors matched to a radiation dominated era.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figure, revised version with small corrections to match
version in print. Results and conclusions unchange
Cosmological parameter estimation and the inflationary cosmology
We consider approaches to cosmological parameter estimation in the
inflationary cosmology, focussing on the required accuracy of the initial power
spectra. Parametrizing the spectra, for example by power-laws, is well suited
to testing the inflationary paradigm but will only correctly estimate
cosmological parameters if the parametrization is sufficiently accurate, and we
investigate conditions under which this is achieved both for present data and
for upcoming satellite data. If inflation is favoured, reliable estimation of
its physical parameters requires an alternative approach adopting its detailed
predictions. For slow-roll inflation, we investigate the accuracy of the
predicted spectra at first and second order in the slow-roll expansion
(presenting the complete second-order corrections for the tensors for the first
time). We find that within the presently-allowed parameter space, there are
regions where it will be necessary to include second-order corrections to reach
the accuracy requirements of MAP and Planck satellite data. We end by proposing
a data analysis pipeline appropriate for testing inflation and for cosmological
parameter estimation from high-precision data.Comment: 15 pages RevTeX file with figures incorporated. Slow-roll inflation
module for use with the CAMB program can be found at
http://astronomy.cpes.susx.ac.uk/~sleach/inflation/ This version corrects a
typo in the definition of z_S (after Eq.1) and supersedes the journal versio
Recurrent dynamical symmetry breaking and restoration by Wilson lines at finite densities on a torus
In this paper we derive the general expression of a one-loop effective
potential of the nonintegrable phases of Wilson lines for an SU(N) gauge theory
with a massless adjoint fermion defined on the spactime manifold
at finite temperature and fermion density. The Phase
structure of the vacuum is presented for the case with and N=2 at zero
temperature. It is found that gauge symmetry is broken and restored alternately
as the fermion density increases, a feature not found in the Higgs mechanism.
It is the manifestation of the quantum effects of the nonintegrable phases.Comment: 17 pages, 2 figure
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