Cosmological Solutions of Higher-Curvature String Effective Theories with Dilatons

We study the effect of higher-curvature terms in the string low-energy effective actions on the cosmological solutions of the theory, up to corrections quartic in the curvatures, for the bosonic and heterotic strings as well as the type II superstring. We find that cosmological solutions exist for all string types but they always disappear when the dilaton field is included, a conclusion that can be avoided if string-loop effects are taken into account.Comment: 7 pages, plain Tex with panda.tex macro (included), no figure

On a possible solution for the Polonyi problem in string cosmology

We establish the main features of homogeneous and isotropic dilaton, metric and Yang-Mills configurations in a cosmological framework. We identify a new energy exchange term between the dilaton and the Yang-Mills field which may lead to a possible solution to the Polonyi problem in 4-dimensional string models.Comment: plain Tex, 4 pages. Talk presented at the 7th Marcel Grossman Meeting, July 1994, Stanford, USA, to appear in the proceeding

Constraints on Supergravity Chaotic Inflationary Models

We discuss, in the context of $N=1$ hidden sector non-minimal supergravity chaotic inflationary models, constraints on the parameters of a polynomial superpotential resulting from existing bounds on the reheating temperature and on the amplitude of the primordial energy density fluctuations as inferred from COBE. We present a specific two-parameter chaotic inflationary model which satisfies these constraints and discuss a possible scenario for adequate baryon asymmetry generation.Comment: Latex file, 10 pages; important changes and references adde

A Curvature Principle for the interaction between universes

We propose a Curvature Principle to describe the dynamics of interacting universes in a multi-universe scenario and show, in the context of a simplified model, how interaction drives the cosmological constant of one of the universes toward a vanishingly small value. We also conjecture on how the proposed Curvature Principle suggests a solution for the entropy paradox of a universe where the cosmological constant vanishes.Comment: Essay selected for an honorable mention by the Gravity Research Foundation, 2007. Plain latex, 8 page

Chaplygin inspired Inflation

We discuss chaotic inflation in the context of a phenomenological modification of gravity inspired by the Chaplygin gas equation of state. We find that all observationalconstraints can be satisfied provided the Chaplygin scale is smaller than $6.9 \times 10^{-3} M$ and the inflaton mass is smaller than $4.7 \times 10^{-6} M$, respectively, where $M^2\equiv(8 \pi G)^{-1} is the reduced Planck mass.Comment: Revtex4, 5 pages. Version to match the one published in Physics Letters

String Theory and Cosmology

We discuss the main cosmological implications of considering string-loop effects and a potential for the dilaton in the lowest order string effective action. Our framework is based on the effective model arising from regarding homogeneous and isotropic dilaton, metric and Yang-Mills field configurations. The issues of inflation, entropy crisis and the Polonyi problem as well as the problem of the cosmological constant are discussed.Comment: 7 pages, plain Tex, no figure

Primordial Density Fluctuations in a Dual Supergravity Cosmology

We analyse the spectrum of energy density fluctuations of a dual supergravity model where the dilaton and the moduli are stabilized and sucessful inflation is achieved inside domain walls that separate different vacua of the theory. Constraints on the parameters of the superpotential are derived from the amplitude of the primordial energy density fluctuations as inferred from COBE and it is shown that the scale dependence of the tensor perturbations nearly vanishes.Comment: 13 pages, Latex, 3 figures (uses epsf.sty

WMAP Constraints on the Generalized Chaplygin Gas Model

The generalized Chaplygin gas (GCG) model explains the recent accelerated expansion of the Universe via an exotic background fluid whose equation of state is given by p=-A/\rho^\alpha, where A is a positive constant and 0<\alpha\le 1. The model is an interesting alternative to scenarios involving scalar field potentials, with the ensuing unnatural fine tuning conditions for the underlying particle physics theories. We derive constraints on the parameter space of the model from bounds on the location of the first few peaks and troughs of the the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMBR) power spectrum arising from recent WMAP and BOOMERanG data.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figures, version to appear in Phys. Lett.