Published in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
In this work we study different aspect of self-interacting 2-form fields with special emphasis in their cosmological applications. We provide the explicit construction of how massless 2-forms are compatible with the cosmological principle without resorting to the dual scalar field formulation. In terms of the 2-form, the residual Euclidean group is...
We propose the possibility that compact extra dimensions can obtain large size by higher dimensional inflation, relating the weakness of the actual gravitational force to the size of the observable universe. Solution to the horizon problem implies that the fundamental scale of gravity is smaller than $10^{13}$ GeV which can be realised in a branewo...
Published in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
We present a detailed exposition on the prospects of the formation of Primordial Black Holes (PBHs) during Slow Roll (SR) to Ultra Slow Roll (USR) sharp transitions in the framework of single-field inflation. We use an effective field theory (EFT) approach in order to keep the analysis model-independent and applicable to both the canonical and non-...
Published in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
We study a single-field inflation model in which the inflaton potential has an upward step between two slow-roll regimes by taking into account the finite width of the step. We calculate the probability distribution function (PDF) of the curvature perturbation P[ℛ] using the δN formalism. The PDF has an exponential-tail only for positive ℛ whose sl...
Most high-energy constructions that realise a phase of cosmic inflation contain many degrees of freedom. Yet, cosmological observations are all consistent with single-field embeddings. We show how volume selection effects explain this apparent paradox. Due to quantum diffusion, different regions of space inflate by different amounts. In regions tha...
This paper presents Dandelion, a new dish antenna experiment searching for dark photons (DPs) with masses around the meV that will start acquiring data by the end of 2023. A spherical mirror acts as a conversion surface between DPs and standard photons that converge to a matrix of 418 Kinetic Inductance Detectors cooled down to 150 mK. A tilt of th...
Published in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
We argue that field trajectories, which lead to cosmic acceleration and feature rapid turns near the boundary of the moduli space, are in the Swampland. We obtain this result by assuming the validity of the Swampland Distance Conjecture (SDC) in the presence of a positive scalar potential and by focusing on hyperbolic spaces, as prototype geometrie...
Published in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
It is shown how self-reproduction can be easily avoided in the inflationary universe, even when inflation starts at Planck scales. This is achieved by a simple coupling of the inflaton potential with a mimetic field. In this case, the problem of fine-tuning of the initial conditions does not arise, while eternal inflation and the multiverse with al...
Published in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
We investigate the production of primordial black holes (PBHs) in a mixed inflaton-curvaton scenario with a quadratic curvaton potential, assuming the curvaton is in de Sitter equilibrium during inflation with 〈χ〉 = 0. In this setup, the curvature perturbation sourced by the curvaton is strongly non-Gaussian, containing no leading Gaussian term. We...
Published in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
The stochastic signal detected by NANOGrav, PPTA, EPTA, and CPTA can be explained by the scalar-induced gravitational waves. In order to determine the scalar-induced gravitational waves model that best fits the stochastic signal, we employ both single- and double-peak parameterizations for the power spectrum of the primordial curvature perturbation...
