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.

On the Geometric Approach to the Boundary Problem in Supergravity

We review the geometric superspace approach to the boundary problem in supergravity, retracing the geometric construction of four-dimensional supergravity Lagrangians in the presence of a non-trivial boundary of spacetime. We first focus on pure N=1 and N=2 theories with negative cosmological constant. Here, the supersymmetry invariance of the action requires the addition of topological (boundary) contributions which generalize at the supersymmetric level the Euler-Gauss-Bonnet term. Moreover, one finds that the boundary values of the super field-strengths are dynamically fixed to constant values, corresponding to the vanishing of the OSp(N|4)-covariant supercurvatures at the boundary. We then consider the case of vanishing cosmological constant where, in the presence of a non-trivial boundary, the inclusion of boundary terms involving additional fields, which behave as auxiliary fields for the bulk theory, allows to restore supersymmetry. In all the cases listed above, the full, supersymmetric Lagrangian can be recast in a MacDowell-Mansouri(-like) form. We then report on the application of the results to specific problems regarding cases where the boundary is located asymptotically, relevant for a holographic analysis.

Wormhole solutions with NUT charge in higher curvature theories

We present wormholes with a Newman–Unti–Tamburino (NUT) charge that arise in certain higher curvature theories, where a scalar field is coupled to a higher curvature invariant. For the invariants we employ (i) a Gauss–Bonnet term and (ii) a Chern–Simons term, which then act as source terms for the scalar field. We map out the domain of existence of wormhole solutions by varying the coupling parameter and the scalar charge for a set of fixed values of the NUT charge. The domain of existence for a given NUT charge is then delimited by the set of scalarized nutty black holes, a set of wormhole solutions with a degenerate throat and a set of singular solutions.

Scalarized black holes

Black holes represent outstanding astrophysical laboratories to test the strong gravity regime, since alternative theories of gravity may predict black hole solutions whose properties may differ distinctly from those of general relativity. When higher curvature terms are included in the gravitational action as, for instance, in the form of the Gauss–Bonnet term coupled to a scalar field, scalarized black holes result. Here we discuss several types of scalarized black holes and some of their properties.

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.

De Sitter Solutions in Einstein–Gauss–Bonnet Gravity

De Sitter solutions play an important role in cosmology because the knowledge of unstable de Sitter solutions can be useful to describe inflation, whereas stable de Sitter solutions are often used in models of late-time acceleration of the Universe. The Einstein–Gauss–Bonnet gravity cosmological models are actively used both as inflationary models and as dark energy models. To modify the Einstein equations one can add a nonlinear function of the Gauss–Bonnet term or a function of the scalar field multiplied on the Gauss–Bonnet term. The effective potential method essentially simplifies the search and stability analysis of de Sitter solutions, because the stable de Sitter solutions correspond to minima of the effective potential.

Derive Lovelock gravity from string theory in cosmological background

It was proved more than three decades ago, that the first order α′ correction of string effective theory could be written as the Gauss-Bonnet term, which is the quadratic term of Lovelock gravity. In cosmological background, with an appropriate field redefinition, we reorganize the infinite α′ corrections of string effective action into a finite term expression for any specific dimension. This finite term expression matches Lovelock gravity exactly and thus fix the couplings of Lovelock gravity by the coefficients of string effective action. This result thus provides a strong support to string theory.

Some aspects of the cosmological dynamics in Einstein–Gauss–Bonnet gravity

We study some aspects of dynamical compactification scenario where stabilization of extra dimensions occurs due to the presence of Gauss–Bonnet term and nonzero spatial curvature. In the framework of the model under consideration, there exists two-stages scenario of evolution of a Universe: in the first stage, the space evolves from a totally anisotropic state to the state with three-dimensional (corresponding to our “real” world) expanding and [Formula: see text]-dimensional contracting isotropic subspaces; on the second stage, constant curvature of extra dimensions begins to play role and provide compactification of extra dimensions. It is already known that such a scenario is realizable when constant curvature of extra dimensions is negative. Here we show that a range of coupling constants for which exponential solutions with three-dimensional expanding and [Formula: see text]-dimensional contracting isotropic subspaces are stable is located in a zone where compactification solutions with positively curved extra space are unstable, so that two-stage scenario analogous to the one described above is not realizable. Also we study “nearly-Friedmann” regime for the case of arbitrary constant curvature of extra dimensions and describe new parametrization of the general solution for the model under consideration which provide elegant way of describing areas of existence over parameters space.