Cosmological Perturbations via Quantum Corrections in M-Theory

In the early universe, it is important to take into account the quantum effect of gravity to explain the feature of inflation. In this paper, we consider the M-theory effective action which consists of 11-dimensional supergravity and (Weyl)4 terms. The equations of motion are solved perturbatively, and the solution describes the inflation-like expansion in 4-dimensional spacetime. Equations of motion for tensor perturbations around this background are derived perturbatively. We also check that the equations of motion are obtained from the effective action up to the second order of the perturbations. Finally, we solve the equations of motion for the tensor perturbations perturbatively and obtain analytic expressions for them.

Scalar and tensor perturbations in DHOST bounce cosmology

We investigate the bounce realization in the framework of DHOST cosmology, focusing on the relation with observables. We perform a detailed analysis of the scalar and tensor perturbations during the Ekpyrotic contraction phase, the bounce phase, and the fast-roll expansion phase, calculating the power spectra, the spectral indices and the tensor-to-scalar ratio. Furthermore, we study the initial conditions, incorporating perturbations generated by Ekpyrotic vacuum fluctuations, by matter vacuum fluctuations, and by thermal fluctuations. The scale invariance of the scalar power spectrum can be acquired introducing a matter contraction phase before the Ekpyrotic phase, or invoking a thermal gas as the source. The DHOST bounce scenario with cosmological perturbations generated by thermal fluctuations proves to be the most efficient one, and the corresponding predictions are in perfect agreement with observational bounds. Especially the tensor-to-scalar ratio is many orders of magnitude within the allowed region, since it is suppressed by the Hubble parameter at the beginning of the bounce phase.

Fundamental energy scale of the thick brane in mimetic gravity

In this paper, thick branes generated by the mimetic scalar field with Lagrange multiplier formulation are investigated. We give three typical thick brane background solutions with different asymptotic behaviors and show that all the solutions are stable under tensor perturbations. The effective potentials of the tensor perturbations exhibit as volcano potential, Poöschl–Teller potential, and harmonic oscillator potential for the three background solutions, respectively. All the tensor zero modes (massless gravitons) of the three cases can be localized on the brane. We also calculate the corrections to the four-dimensional Newtonian potential. On a large scale, the corrections to the four-dimensional Newtonian potential can be ignored. While on a small scale, the correction from the volcano-like potential is more pronounced than the other two cases. Combining the specific corrections to the four-dimensional Newtonian potential of these three cases and the latest results of short-range gravity experiments, we get the constraint on the scale parameter as $$k > rsim 10^{-4}$$ k ≳ 10 - 4 eV, and constraint on the corresponding five-dimensional fundamental scale as $$M_* > rsim 10^5$$ M ∗ ≳ 10 5 TeV.

Quantum State Evolution in an Environment of Cosmological Perturbations

We study the pure and thermal states of quantized scalar and tensor perturbations in various epochs of Universe evolution. We calculate the density matrix of non-relativistic particles in an environment of these perturbations. We show that particle’s motion can be described by a stochastic equation with a noise coming from the cosmological environment. We investigate the squeezing of Gaussian wave packets in different epochs and its impact on the noise of quantized cosmological perturbations.

Mimetic inflation

We study inflationary solution in an extension of mimetic gravity with the higher derivative interactions coupled to gravity. Because of the higher derivative interactions the setup is free from the ghost and gradient instabilities while it hosts a number of novel properties. The dispersion relation of scalar perturbations develop quartic momentum correction similar to the setup of ghost inflation. Furthermore, the tilt of tensor perturbations can take either signs with a modified consistency relation between the tilt and the amplitude of tensor perturbations. Despite the presence of higher derivative interactions coupled to gravity the tensor perturbations propagate with the speed equal to the speed of light as required by the LIGO observations. Furthermore, the higher derivative interactions induce non-trivial interactions in cubic Hamiltonian, generating non-Gaussianities in various shapes such as the equilateral, orthogonal and squeezed configurations with observable amplitudes.

Tensor perturbations and thick branes in higher-dimensional f(R) gravity

We study brane worlds in an anisotropic higher-dimensional spacetime within the context of f(R) gravity. Firstly, we demonstrate that this spacetime with a concrete metric ansatz is stable against linear tensor perturbations under certain conditions. Moreover, the Kaluza-Klein modes of the graviton are analyzed. Secondly, we investigate thick brane solutions in six dimensions and their properties. We further exhibit two sets of solutions for thick branes. At last, the effective potential of the Kaluza-Klein modes of the graviton is discussed for the two solved f(R) models in higher dimensions.