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

Black Holes in Cascading Theories: Confinement/Deconfinement Transition and other Thermal Properties

We present numerical evidence for a transition between the Klebanov-Strassler background and a solution describing a black hole in the class of cascading solutions in the chirally restored phase. We also present a number of properties of this solution, including the running of the coupling constant, the viscosity to entropy ratio and the drag force on a quark moving in this background.Comment: 34 pages, 7 figures. Version to be published by JHE

Inflation and Brane Gases

We investigate a new way of realizing a period of cosmological inflation in the context of brane gas cosmology. It is argued that a gas of co-dimension one branes, out of thermal equilibrium with the rest of the matter, has an equation of state which can - after stabilization of the dilaton - lead to power-law inflation of the bulk. The most promising implementation of this mechanism might be in Type IIB superstring theory, with inflation of the three large spatial dimensions triggered by ``stabilized embedded 2-branes''. Possible applications and problems with this proposal are discussed.Comment: 7 pages, uses REVTeX, version to appear in Phys. Rev.

Inflationary potentials yielding constant scalar perturbation spectral indices

We explore the types of slow-roll inflationary potentials that result in scalar perturbations with a constant spectral index, i.e., perturbations that may be described by a single power-law spectrum over all observable scales. We devote particular attention to the type of potentials that result in the Harrison--Zel'dovich spectrum.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures. New general derivation method, structure change