Inflationary Universe Models: Predictions and Observations

A special issue of Universe (ISSN 2218-1997).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2017) | Viewed by 14614

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Art and Design, Faculty of Technology, Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences, P.O. Box 4 St., Olavs Plass, NO-0130 Oslo, Norway
Interests: cosmology; early universe; inflation; general theory of relativity; electromagnetism of uniformly accelerated charges; conceptual understanding of general relativity

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The inflationary paradigm, for the description of the first moment in the history of the universe stands strongly, since it solves several problems that a description of the evolution of the universe without any inflationary era is not able to solve. However, more than a hundred different inflationary universe models have been developed. We need to eliminate as many as possible in order to obtain a greater knowledge of the initial era of the universe. In this volume of the journal Universe we invite researchers to collect observational results and confront them with the predictions of different inflationary models in an effort to falsify as many as possible. Additionally, we invite theoreticians to judge the strength of different inflationary models—which have a sound physical basis and which are ad hoc ‘toy models’.

Prof. Øyvind G. Grøn
Guest Editor

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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28 pages, 1032 KiB  
Article
Gravitational Waves, μ Term and Leptogenesis from BL Higgs Inflation in Supergravity
by Constantinos Pallis
Universe 2018, 4(1), 13; https://doi.org/10.3390/universe4010013 - 9 Jan 2018
Cited by 16 | Viewed by 3232
Abstract
We consider a renormalizable extension of the minimal supersymmetric standard model endowed by an R and a gauged B L symmetry. The model incorporates chaotic inflation driven by a quartic potential, associated with the Higgs field which leads to a spontaneous breaking [...] Read more.
We consider a renormalizable extension of the minimal supersymmetric standard model endowed by an R and a gauged B L symmetry. The model incorporates chaotic inflation driven by a quartic potential, associated with the Higgs field which leads to a spontaneous breaking of U(1) B L , and yields possibly detectable gravitational waves. We employ quadratic Kähler potential with a prominent shift-symmetric part proportional to c and a tiny violation, proportional to c + , included in a logarithm with prefactor N < 0 . An explanation of the μ term of the MSSM is also provided, consistently with the low energy phenomenology, under the condition that one related parameter in the superpotential is somewhat small. Baryogenesis occurs via non-thermal leptogenesis which is realized by the inflaton’s decay to the lightest or next-to-lightest right-handed neutrino with masses lower than 1.8 × 10 13 GeV. Our scenario can be confronted with the current data on the inflationary observables, the baryon asymmetry of the universe, the gravitino limit on the reheating temperature and the data on the neutrino oscillation parameters, for 0.012 ≲ c + / c ≲ 1/N and gravitino as light as 1 TeV. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Inflationary Universe Models: Predictions and Observations)
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497 KiB  
Article
Extra-Dimensional “Metamaterials”: A Model of Inflation Due to a Metric Signature Transition
by Igor I. Smolyaninov
Universe 2017, 3(3), 66; https://doi.org/10.3390/universe3030066 - 20 Sep 2017
Viewed by 3060
Abstract
Lattices of topological defects, such as Abrikosov lattices and domain wall lattices, often arise as metastable ground states in higher-dimensional field theoretical models. We demonstrate that such lattice states may be described as extra-dimensional “metamaterials” via higher-dimensional effective medium theory. A 4 + [...] Read more.
Lattices of topological defects, such as Abrikosov lattices and domain wall lattices, often arise as metastable ground states in higher-dimensional field theoretical models. We demonstrate that such lattice states may be described as extra-dimensional “metamaterials” via higher-dimensional effective medium theory. A 4 + 1 dimensional extension of Maxwell electrodynamics with a compactified time-like dimension is considered as an example. It is demonstrated that from the point of view of macroscopic electrodynamics an Abrikosov lattice state in such a 4 + 1 dimensional spacetime may be described as a uniaxial hyperbolic medium. Extraordinary photons perceive this medium as a 3 + 1 dimensional Minkowski spacetime in which one of the original spatial dimensions plays the role of a new time-like coordinate. Since the metric signature of this effective spacetime depends on the Abrikosov lattice periodicity, the described model may be useful in studying metric signature transitions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Inflationary Universe Models: Predictions and Observations)
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2220 KiB  
Article
Thermally Induced Effective Spacetimes in Self-Assembled Hyperbolic Metamaterials
by Igor I. Smolyaninov
Universe 2017, 3(1), 23; https://doi.org/10.3390/universe3010023 - 8 Mar 2017
Viewed by 3524
Abstract
Recent developments in gravitation theory indicate that the classic general relativity is an effective macroscopic theory which will be eventually replaced with a more fundamental theory based on thermodynamics of yet unknown microscopic degrees of freedom. Here we consider thermodynamics of an effective [...] Read more.
Recent developments in gravitation theory indicate that the classic general relativity is an effective macroscopic theory which will be eventually replaced with a more fundamental theory based on thermodynamics of yet unknown microscopic degrees of freedom. Here we consider thermodynamics of an effective spacetime which may be formed under the influence of an external magnetic field in a cobalt ferrofluid. It appears that the extraordinary photons propagating inside the ferrofluid perceive thermal gradients in the ferrofluid as an effective gravitational field, which obeys the Newton law. Moreover, the effective de Sitter spacetime behaviour near the metric signature transition may mimic various cosmological inflation scenarios, which may be visualized directly using an optical microscope. Thus, some features of the hypothetic microscopic theory of gravity are illustrated in the ferrofluid-based analogue models of inflation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Inflationary Universe Models: Predictions and Observations)
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Review

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163 pages, 3693 KiB  
Review
Predictions of Spectral Parameters by Several Inflationary Universe Models in Light of the Planck Results
by Øyvind Grøn
Universe 2018, 4(2), 15; https://doi.org/10.3390/universe4020015 - 29 Jan 2018
Cited by 20 | Viewed by 4017
Abstract
I give a review of predictions of values of spectral parameters for a large number of inflationary models. The present review includes detailed deductions and information about the approximations that have been made, written in a style that is suitable for text book [...] Read more.
I give a review of predictions of values of spectral parameters for a large number of inflationary models. The present review includes detailed deductions and information about the approximations that have been made, written in a style that is suitable for text book authors. The Planck data have the power of falsifying several models of inflation as shown in the present paper. Furthermore, they fix the beginning of the inflationary era to a time about 10−36 s, and the typical energy of a particle at this point of time to 1016 GeV, only a few orders of magnitude less than the Planck energy, and at least 12 orders of magnitude larger than the most energetic particle produced by CERN’s particle accelerator, LHC. This is a phenomenological review with contents as given in the list below. It includes systematic presentations of the different types of slow roll parameters that have been in use, and also of the N-formalism. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Inflationary Universe Models: Predictions and Observations)
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