Quantum Corrections in Massive Gravity

We compute the one-loop quantum corrections to the potential of ghost-free massive gravity. We show how the mass of external matter fields contribute to the running of the cosmological constant, but do not change the ghost-free structure of the massive gravity potential at one-loop. When considering gravitons running in the loops, we show how the structure of the potential gets destabilized at the quantum level, but in a way which would never involve a ghost with a mass smaller than the Planck scale. This is done by explicitly computing the one-loop effective action and supplementing it with the Vainshtein mechanism. We conclude that to one-loop order the special mass structure of ghost-free massive gravity is technically natural.Comment: v2: References added, 29 pages, 7 figure

Preheating in Dirac-Born-Infeld inflation

We study how the universe reheats following an era of chaotic Dirac-Born-Infeld inflation, and compare the rate of particle production with that in models based on canonical kinetic terms. Particle production occurs through non-perturbative resonances whose structure is modified by the nonlinearities of the Dirac-Born-Infeld action. We investigate these modifications and show that the reheating process may be efficient. We estimate the initial temperature of the subsequent hot, radiation-dominated phase.Comment: 23 page

Scale-dependent bias from multiple-field inflation

We provide a formula for the scaling behaviour of the inflationary bispectrum in the 'squeezed' limit where one momentum becomes much smaller than the other two. This determines the scaling of the halo bias at low wavenumber and will be an important observable for the next generation of galaxy surveys. Our formula allows it to be predicted for the first time for a generic inflationary model with multiple light, canonically-normalized scalar fields

From Flow to Jamming: Lattice Gas Automaton Simulations in Granular Materials

We introduce the first extension of a Lattice Gas Automaton (LGA) model to accurately replicate observed emergent phenomena in granular materials with a special focus on previously unexplored jamming transitions by incorporating gravitational effects, energy dissipation in particle collisions, and wall friction. We successfully reproduce flow rate evolution, density wave formation, and jamming transition observed in experiments. We also explore the critical density at which jamming becomes probable. This research advances our understanding of granular dynamics and offers insights into the jamming behavior of granular materials