Unlocking the synergy between CMB spectral distortions and anisotropies

Measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) spectral distortions (SDs) will open a new window on the very early universe, providing new information complementary to that gathered from CMB temperature and polarization anisotropies. In this paper, we study their synergy as a function of the characteristics of the considered experiments. In particular, we examine a wide range of sensitivities for possible SD measurements, spanning from FIRAS up to noise levels 1000 times better than PIXIE, and study their constraining power when combined with current or future CMB anisotropy experiments such as Planck or LiteBIRD plus CMB-S4. We consider a number of different cosmological models such as the ΛCDM, as well as its extensions with the running of the scalar spectral index, the decay or the annihilation of dark matter (DM) particles. While upcoming CMB anisotropy experiments will be able to decrease the uncertainties on inflationary parameters such as As and ns by about a factor 2 in the ΛCDM case, we find that an SD experiment 100 times more sensitive than PIXIE (comparable to the proposed Super-PIXIE satellite) could potentially further contribute to constrain these parameters. This is even more significant in the case of the running of the scalar spectral index. Furthermore, as expected, constraints on DM particles decaying at redshifts probed by SDs will improve by orders of magnitude even with an experiment 10 times worse than PIXIE as compared to CMB anisotropies or Big Bang Nucleosynthesis bounds. On the contrary, DM annihilation constraints will not significantly improve over CMB anisotropy measurements. Finally, we forecast the constraints obtainable with sensitivities achievable either from the ground or from a balloon.

Testing an inflationary era in curvature–matter coupling gravity

In this paper, we investigate the cosmological inflation in the context of a minimal matter–geometry coupling, which is based on the [Formula: see text] gravity theory, where [Formula: see text] is a generic function of the curvature scalar [Formula: see text] and the trace [Formula: see text] of the energy–momentum tensor. Assuming that the slow-roll inflation conditions hold true in [Formula: see text] gravity, we obtain the various inflation-related observables such as the tensor-to-scalar ratio [Formula: see text], the scalar spectral index [Formula: see text], the running [Formula: see text] of the spectral index and the tensor spectral [Formula: see text] for two specific [Formula: see text] models from the Hubble slow-roll parameters. To observe the viability of these models, a numerical analysis of such parameters has been done. The results showed that, by using the various values of free parameters, it is possible to obtain a viable compatible with the observational data.

Warm constant-roll inflation in brane-world cosmology

In this paper, we study a constant-roll inflationary model in the context of brane-world cosmology caused by a quintessence scalar field for warm inflation with a constant dissipative parameter [Formula: see text]. We determine the analytical solution for the Friedmann equation coupled to the equation of motion of the scalar field. The evolution of the primordial scalar and tensor perturbations is also studied using the modified Langevin equation. To check the viability of the model, we use numerical approaches and plot some figures. Our results for the scalar spectral index and the tensor-to-scalar ratio show good consistency with observations.

Testing an inflationary era in curvature–matter coupling gravity

In this paper, we investigate the cosmological inflation in the context of a minimal matter–geometry coupling, which is based on the [Formula: see text] gravity theory, where [Formula: see text] is a generic function of the curvature scalar [Formula: see text] and the trace [Formula: see text] of the energy–momentum tensor. Assuming that the slow-roll inflation conditions hold true in [Formula: see text] gravity, we obtain the various inflation-related observables such as the tensor-to-scalar ratio [Formula: see text], the scalar spectral index [Formula: see text], the running [Formula: see text] of the spectral index and the tensor spectral [Formula: see text] for two specific [Formula: see text] models from the Hubble slow-roll parameters. To observe the viability of these models, a numerical analysis of such parameters has been done. The results showed that, by using the various values of free parameters, it is possible to obtain a viable compatible with the observational data.

Viable intermediate inflation in the mimetic DBI model

We study the intermediate inflation in the mimetic Dirac–Born–Infeld model. By considering the scale factor as $$a=a_{0}\exp (bt^{\beta })$$ a = a 0 exp ( b t β ) , we show that in some ranges of the intermediate parameters b and $$\beta $$ β , the model is free of the ghost and gradient instabilities. We study the scalar spectral index, tensor spectral index, and the tensor-to-scalar ratio in this model and compare the results with Planck2018 TT, TE, EE + lowE + lensing + BAO + BK14 data at 68% and 95% CL. In this regard, we find some constraints on the intermediate parameters that lead to the observationally viable values of the perturbation parameters. We also seek the non-Gaussian features of the primordial perturbations in the equilateral configuration. By performing the numerical analysis on the nonlinearity parameter in this configuration, we show that the amplitude of the non-Gaussianity in the intermediate mimetic DBI model is predicted to be in the range $$-16.7<f^{equil}<-12.5$$ - 16.7 < f equil < - 12.5 . We show that, with $$0<b\le 10$$ 0 < b ≤ 10 and $$0.345<\beta <0.387$$ 0.345 < β < 0.387 , we have an instabilities-free intermediate mimetic DBI model that gives the observationally viable perturbation and non-Gaussianity parameters.

Inflation with non-canonical scalar fields revisited

We revisit inflation with non-canonical scalar fields by applying deformed-steepness exponential potentials. We show that the resulting scenario can lead to inflationary observables, and in particular to scalar spectral index and tensor-to-scalar ratio, in remarkable agreement with observations. Additionally, a significant advantage of the scenario is that the required parameter values, such as the non-canonicality exponent and scale, as well as the potential exponent and scale, do not need to acquire unnatural values and hence can accept a theoretical justification. Hence, we obtain a significant improvement with respect to alternative schemes, and we present distinct correlations between the model parameters that better fit the data, which can be tested in future probes. This combination of observational efficiency and theoretical justification makes the scenario at hand a good candidate for the description of inflation.

Reconstructing inflation in scalar-torsion $$f(T,\phi )$$ gravity

It is investigated the reconstruction during the slow-roll inflation in the most general class of scalar-torsion theories whose Lagrangian density is an arbitrary function $$f(T,\phi )$$ f ( T , ϕ ) of the torsion scalar T of teleparallel gravity and the inflaton $$\phi $$ ϕ . For the class of theories with Lagrangian density $$f(T,\phi )=-M_{pl}^{2} T/2 - G(T) F(\phi ) - V(\phi )$$ f ( T , ϕ ) = - M pl 2 T / 2 - G ( T ) F ( ϕ ) - V ( ϕ ) , with $$G(T)\sim T^{s+1}$$ G ( T ) ∼ T s + 1 and the power s as constant, we consider a reconstruction scheme for determining both the non-minimal coupling function $$F(\phi )$$ F ( ϕ ) and the scalar potential $$V(\phi )$$ V ( ϕ ) through the parametrization (or attractor) of the scalar spectral index $$n_{s}(N)$$ n s ( N ) and the tensor-to-scalar ratio r(N) as functions of the number of $$e-$$ e - folds N. As specific examples, we analyze the attractors $$n_{s}-1 \propto 1/N$$ n s - 1 ∝ 1 / N and $$r\propto 1/N$$ r ∝ 1 / N , as well as the case $$r\propto 1/N (N+\gamma )$$ r ∝ 1 / N ( N + γ ) with $$\gamma $$ γ a dimensionless constant. In this sense and depending on the attractors considered, we obtain different expressions for the function $$F(\phi )$$ F ( ϕ ) and the potential $$V(\phi )$$ V ( ϕ ) , as also the constraints on the parameters present in our model and its reconstruction.

Construction of inflationary scenarios with the Gauss–Bonnet term and nonminimal coupling

Inflationary models with a scalar field nonminimally coupled both with the Ricci scalar and with the Gauss–Bonnet term are studied. We propose the way of generalization of inflationary scenarios with the Gauss–Bonnet term and a scalar field minimally coupled with the Ricci scalar to the corresponding scenarios with a scalar field nonminimally coupled with the Ricci scalar. Using the effective potential, we construct a set of models with the same values of the scalar spectral index $$n_s$$ n s and the amplitude of the scalar perturbations $$A_s$$ A s and different values of the tensor-to-scalar ratio r.

Cosmological inflation driven by a scalar torsion function

A viable model for inflation driven by a torsion function in a Friedmann background is presented. The scalar spectral index in the interval $$0.92\lesssim n_{s}\lesssim 0.97$$ 0.92 ≲ n s ≲ 0.97 is obtained in order to satisfy the initial conditions for inflation. The post inflationary phase is also studied, and the analytical solutions obtained for scale factor and energy density generalizes that ones for a matter dominated universe, indicating just a small deviation from the standard model evolution. The same kind of torsion function used also describes satisfactorily the recent acceleration of the universe, which could indicate a possible unification of different phases, apart form specific constants

A note on supergravity inflation in braneworld

We discuss supergravity inflation in braneworld cosmology for the class of potentials [Formula: see text] with [Formula: see text]. These minimal SUGRA models evade the [Formula: see text] problem due to a broken shift symmetry and can easily accommodate the observational constraints. In the high energy regime [Formula: see text], the numerical predictions and approximate analytic formulas are given for the scalar spectral index [Formula: see text] and tensor-to-scalar ratio [Formula: see text]. The models with smaller [Formula: see text] are preferred while the models with larger [Formula: see text] are out of the [Formula: see text] region. Remarkably, the [Formula: see text] correction to the energy density in Friedmann equation results in sub-Planckian inflaton excursions [Formula: see text].