Brane Inflation from Rotation of D4 Brane

In this paper, a inflationary model from the rotation of D4-brane is constructed. We show that for a very wide rage of parameter, this model satisfies the observation and find that regarded as inflaton, the rotation of branes may be more nature than the distance between branes. Our model offers a new avenue for brane inflation.Comment: 6 pages, no figure

Bounds on isocurvature perturbations from CMB and LSS data

We obtain very stringent bounds on the possible cold dark matter, baryon and neutrino isocurvature contributions to the primordial fluctuations in the Universe, using recent cosmic microwave background and large scale structure data. In particular, we include the measured temperature and polarization power spectra from WMAP and ACBAR, as well as the matter power spectrum from the 2dF galaxy redshift survey. Neglecting the possible effects of spatial curvature, tensor perturbations and reionization, we perform a Bayesian likelihood analysis with nine free parameters, and find that the amplitude of the isocurvature component cannot be larger than about 31% for the cold dark matter mode, 91% for the baryon mode, 76% for the neutrino density mode, and 60% for the neutrino velocity mode, at 2-sigma, for uncorrelated models. On the other hand, for correlated adiabatic and isocurvature components, the fraction could be slightly larger. However, the cross-correlation coefficient is strongly constrained, and maximally correlated/anticorrelated models are disfavored. This puts strong bounds on the curvaton model, independently of the bounds on non-Gaussianity.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, some minor corrections; version accepted in PR

Hybrid Inflation Exit through Tunneling

For hybrid inflationary potentials, we derive the tunneling rate from field configurations along the flat direction towards the waterfall regime. This process competes with the classically rolling evolution of the scalar fields and needs to be strongly subdominant for phenomenologically viable models. Tunneling may exclude models with a mass scale below 10^12 GeV, but can be suppressed by small values of the coupling constants. We find that tunneling is negligible for those models, which do not require fine tuning in order to cancel radiative corrections, in particular for GUT-scale SUSY inflation. In contrast, electroweak scale hybrid inflation is not viable, unless the inflaton-waterfall field coupling is smaller than approximately 10^-11.Comment: 17 pages, 2 figure

Uncertainties of predictions in models of eternal inflation

In a previous paper \cite{MakingPredictions}, a method of comparing the volumes of thermalized regions in eternally inflating universe was introduced. In this paper, we investigate the dependence of the results obtained through that method on the choice of the time variable and factor ordering in the diffusion equation that describes the evolution of eternally inflating universes. It is shown, both analytically and numerically, that the variation of the results due to factor ordering ambiguity inherent in the model is of the same order as their variation due to the choice of the time variable. Therefore, the results are, within their accuracy, free of the spurious dependence on the time parametrization.Comment: 30 pages, RevTeX, figure included, added some references and Comments on recent proposal (gr-qc/9511058) of alternative regularization schemes, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Unambiguous probabilities in an eternally inflating universe

``Constants of Nature'' and cosmological parameters may in fact be variables related to some slowly-varying fields. In models of eternal inflation, such fields will take different values in different parts of the universe. Here I show how one can assign probabilities to values of the ``constants'' measured by a typical observer. This method does not suffer from ambiguities previously discussed in the literature.Comment: 7 pages, Final version (minor changes), to appear in Phys. Rev. Let

Non-equilibrium Goldstone phenomenon in tachyonic preheating

The dominance of the direct production of elementary Goldstone waves is demonstrated in tachyonic preheating by numerically determining the evolution of the dispersion relation, the equation of state and the kinetic power spectra for the angular degree of freedom of the complex matter field. The importance of the domain structure in the order parameter distribution for the quantitative understanding of the excitation mechanism is emphasized. Evidence is presented for the very early decoupling of the low-momentum Goldstone modes.Comment: 14 LaTeX pages, 5 figures, version published in Phys. Rev.

Lambda-inflation and CMB anisotropy

We explore a broad class of three-parameter inflationary models, called the $\Lambda$-inflation, and its observational predictions: high abundance of cosmic gravitational waves consistent with the Harrison-Zel'dovich spectrum of primordial cosmological perturbations, the non-power-law wing-like spectrum of matter density perturbations, high efficiency of these models to meet current observational tests, and others. We show that a parity contribution of the gravitational waves and adiabatic density perturbations into the large-scale temperature anisotropy, T/S $\sim 1$, is a common feature of $\Lambda$-inflation; the maximum values of T/S (basically not larger than 10) are reached in models where (i) the local spectrum shape of density perturbations is flat or slightly red ($n_S{}_\sim^< 1$), and (ii) the residual potential energy of the inflaton is near the GUT scale ($V_0^{{1/4}} \sim 10^{16} GeV$). The conditions to find large T/S in the paradigm of cosmic inflation and the relationship of T/S to the ratio of the power spectra, $r$, and to the inflationary $\gamma$ and Hubble parameters, are discussed. We argue that a simple estimate, T/S$\simeq 3r\simeq 12\gamma \simeq (\frac{H}{6\times 10^{13}{\rm GeV}})^2$, is true for most known inflationary solutions and allows to relate straightforwardly the important parameters of observational and physical cosmology.Comment: 29 pages, 3 figures include

Can we avoid dark energy?

The idea that we live near the centre of a large, nonlinear void has attracted attention recently as an alternative to dark energy or modified gravity. We show that an appropriate void profile can fit both the latest cosmic microwave background and supernova data. However, this requires either a fine-tuned primordial spectrum or a Hubble rate so low as to rule these models out. We also show that measurements of the radial baryon acoustic scale can provide very strong constraints. Our results present a serious challenge to void models of acceleration.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures; minor changes; version published in Phys. Rev. Let