From the 1 of 10 linked papers with an AI index.
10 papers
Non-Minimally Coupled Chain Inflation at High Scales
Miguel Barroso Varela, Orfeu Bertolami, Katherine Freese +1
The paper investigates how a non‑minimal coupling between a scalar field and gravity modifies chain inflation, affecting tunneling rates, the scalar spectral index, and producing a…
Standard Model Effective Field Theory and Oscillons
Z. Drogosz, E. I. Sfakianakis, K. Slawinska +1
We show that the inclusion of a dimension-six operator in the Higgs potential has a dramatic impact on the stability of oscillons in the bosonic sector of the Standard Mode…
Phenomenology of Inflaton-Driven Early QCD Confinement and Solution to Axion Isocurvature Problem
Evangelos I. Sfakianakis, Barmak Shams Es Haghi, Katherine Freese
We study the phenomenology of early QCD confinement during inflation, driven by a direct coupling between the inflaton and Standard Model gluons. This coupling dynamically raises t…
Isocurvature-Free QCD Axion Dark Matter from Inflaton-Driven Early QCD: the Necessity of Inflationary Plateaus
Katherine Freese, Evangelos I. Sfakianakis, Barmak Shams Es Haghi
A direct coupling between the inflaton and Standard Model gluons can dynamically raise the QCD confinement scale during inflation, making the axion temporarily heavy and suppressin…
Schwinger effect in axion inflation on a lattice
Oksana Iarygina, Evangelos I. Sfakianakis, Axel Brandenburg
We present the first lattice simulations of the nonlinear evolution after axion inflation by self-consistently incorporating currents arising from Schwinger pair production. The ta…
Gravitational Wave Echoes of the First Order Phase Transition in a Kination-Induced Big Bang
Richard Casey, Katherine Freese, Evangelos I. Sfakianakis
Gravitational waves (GWs) produced during first-order phase transitions (FOPTs) in the early universe provide a powerful probe of nonstandard cosmological histories. We study GW pr…