Higgs inflation and its extensions and the further refining dS swampland conjecture

On the one hand, Andriot and Roupec (Fortsch Phys, 1800105, 2019) proposed an alternative refined de Sitter conjecture, which gives a natural condition on a combination of the first and second derivatives of the scalar potential (Andriot and Roupec 2019). On the other hand, in our previous article (Liu in Eur Phys J Plus 136:901, 2021) , we have found that Palatini Higgs inflation model is in strong tension with the refined de Sitter swampland conjecture (Liu 2021). Therefore, following our previous research, in this article we examine if Higgs inflation model and its two variations: Palatini Higgs inflation and Higgs-Dilaton model (Rubio in Front Astron Space Sci, 10.3389/fspas.2018.00050, 2019) can satisfy the “further refining de Sitter swampland conjecture” or not. Based on observational data (Ade et al., Phys Rev Lett 121:221301, 2018; Akrami et al., Planck 2018 results. X. Constraints on inflation, arXiv:1807.06211 [astro-ph.CO], 2018; Aghanim et al., Planck 2018 results: VI. Cosmological parameters, arXiv:1807.06209 [astro-ph.CO], 2018), we find that these three inflationary models can always satisfy this new swampland conjecture if only we adjust the relevant parameters a, $$b = 1-a$$ b = 1 - a and q. Therefore, if the “further refining de Sitter swampland conjecture” does indeed hold, then the three inflationary models might all be in “landscape”.

Gravitational waves from preheating in Gauss–Bonnet inflation

We study gravitational wave production in an expanding Universe during the first stages following inflation, and investigate the consequences of the Gauss–Bonnet term on the inflationary parameters for a power-law inflation model with a GB coupling term. Moreover, we perform the analyses on the preheating parameters involving the number of e-folds $$N_{pre}$$ N pre , and the temperature of thermalization $$T_{th},$$ T th , and show that it’s sensitive to the parameters n, and $$\gamma $$ γ , the parameter $$\gamma $$ γ is proposed to connect the density energy at the end of inflation to the preheating energy density. We set a correlation of gravitational wave energy density spectrum with the spectral index $$n_{s}$$ n s detected by the cosmic microwave background experiments. The density spectrum $$\varOmega _{gw}$$ Ω gw shows good consistency with observation for $$\gamma =$$ γ = $$10^{3}$$ 10 3 and $$10^{6}$$ 10 6 . Our findings suggest that the generation of gravitational waves (GWs) during preheating can satisfy the constraints from Planck’s data.

Swampland Conjecture and Inflation Model from Brane Perspective

Over the past few decades, inflation models have been studied by researchers from different perspectives and conditions in order to introduce a model for the expanding universe. In this paper, we introduce a modified f(R) gravitational model as (R + γRp ) in order to examine a new condition for inflation models. Given that our studies are related to a modified f(R) gravitational model on the brane, therefore we will encounter modified cosmological parameters. So, we first introduce these modified cosmological parameters such as spectral index, a number of e-folds and etc. Then, we apply these conditions to our modified f(R) gravitational model in order to adapt to the swampland criteria. Finally, we determine the range of each of these parameters by plotting some figures and with respect to observable data such as Planck 2018.

Curvaton and quantum gravity effect on the tensor-to-scalar ratio of the chaotic inflation

The expected tensor-to-scalar ratio estimate of the upcoming CMB mission probe measurements may establish a lower value of the ratio than the currently obtained value. It can be described in terms of a single field chaotic inflation model along with the curvaton or quantum gravity or their combined effect. Consequently, the role of quantum gravity or curvaton in the dynamics of the early universe may not be ruled out. The curvaton scenario and quantum gravity effect can be tested experimentally. The upcoming CMB missions can validate the curvaton scenario and quantum gravity experimentally.

Extranatural flux inflation

We propose a new inflation scenario in flux compactification, where a zero mode scalar field of extra components of the higher dimensional gauge field is identified with an inflaton. The scalar field is a pseudo Nambu-Goldstone boson of spontaneously broken translational symmetry in compactified spaces. The inflaton potential is non-local and finite, which is protected against the higher dimensional non-derivative local operators by quantum gravity corrections thanks to the gauge symmetry in higher dimensions and the shift symmetry originated from the translation in extra spaces. We give an explicit inflation model in a six dimensional scalar QED, which is shown to be consistent with Planck 2018 data.

Hidden dark matter from Starobinsky inflation

The Starobinsky inflation model is one of the simplest inflation models that is consistent with the cosmic microwave background observations. In order to explain dark matter of the universe, we consider a minimal extension of the Starobinsky inflation model with introducing the dark sector which communicates with the visible sector only via the gravitational interaction. In Starobinsky inflation model, a sizable amount of dark-sector particle may be produced by the inflaton decay. Thus, a scalar, a fermion or a vector boson in the dark sector may become dark matter. We pay particular attention to the case with dark non-Abelian gauge interaction to make a dark glueball a dark matter candidate. In the minimal setup, we show that it is difficult to explain the observed dark matter abundance without conflicting observational constraints on the coldness and the self-interaction of dark matter. We propose scenarios in which the dark glueball, as well as other dark-sector particles, from the inflaton decay become viable dark matter candidates. We also discuss possibilities to test such scenarios.

Favored Inflationary Models by Scalar Field Condensate Baryogenesis

We calculate the baryon asymmetry value generated in the Scalar Field Condensate (SCF) baryogenesis model obtained in several inflationary scenarios and different reheating models. We provide analysis of the baryon asymmetry value obtained for more than 70 sets of parameters of the SCF model and the following inflationary scenarios, namely: new inflation, chaotic inflation, Starobinsky inflation, MSSM inflation, quintessential inflation. We considered both cases of efficient thermalization after inflation and delayed thermalization. We have found that the SFC baryogenesis model produces baryon asymmetry orders of magnitude bigger than the observed one for the following inflationary models: new inflation, new inflation model by Shafi and Vilenkin, MSSM inflation, chaotic inflation with high reheating temperature and the simplest Shafi–Vilenkin chaotic inflationary model. Strong diluting mechanisms are needed for these models to reduce the resultant baryon excess at low energies to its observational value today. We have found that a successful generation of the observed baryon asymmetry is possible by the SCF baryogenesis model in Modified Starobinsky inflation, chaotic inflation with low reheating temperature, chaotic inflation in SUGRA, and Quintessential inflation.