In this note we comment recent paper by A.V. Minkevich 'Regular inflationary cosmol-ogy and gauge theories of gravitation' on the 'bouncing' character of flat-type inflationary cosmological models within gauge theories of gravity. Recently [1] it was argued that inflationary cosmological solutions in the case of flat models within the framework of gauge theories of gravity have 'bouncing' chara...

It is shown that a large class of higher-order (i.e. non-quadratic) scalar kinetic terms can, without the help of potential terms, drive an inflationary evolution starting from rather generic initial conditions. In many models, this kinetically driven inflation (or " k-inflation " for short) rolls slowly from a high-curvature initial phase, down to a low-curvature phase and can exit inflation t...

The non-supersymmetric and supersymmetric versions of hybrid inflation are summarized. In the latter, the necessary inclination along the inflationary trajectory is provided by radiative corrections. Supersymmetric hybrid inflation (with its extensions) is an extremely ‘natural’ inflationary scenario. The reasons are that it does not require ‘tiny’ parameters, its superpotential has the most ge...

In this talk we will discuss three different issues. First of all, there exist several proposals how to solve cosmological problems by adiabatic expansion of the Universe of a specific type, without any use of inflation. We explain why these models do not solve the flatness/entropy problem. On the other hand there exist some claims that inflation also does not solve the flatness problem. We sho...

Higgs inflation can occur if the Standard Model (SM) is a self-consistent effective field theory up to inflationary scale. This leads to a lower bound on the Higgs boson mass, Mh ≥ Mcrit. If Mh is more than a few hundreds of MeV above the critical value, the Higgs inflation predicts the universal values of inflationary indexes, r ' 0.003 and ns ' 0.97, independently on the Standard Model parame...

Three-dimensional neutral hydrogen mapping using the redshifted 21 cm line has recently emerged as a promising cosmological probe. Within the framework of slow-roll reconstruction, we analyze how well the inflationary potential can be reconstructed by combining data from 21 cm experiments and cosmic microwave background data from the Planck satellite. We consider inflationary models classified ...

We study the slow-roll inflationary dynamics in a self-gravitating induced gravity braneworld model with bulk cosmological constant. For E ≫ M3 5 /M2 4 we find important corrections to the four-dimensional Friedmann equation which bring the standard chaotic inflationary scenario in closer agreement with recent observations. For M3 5 /M 2 P l ≪ E ≪ M3 5 /M2 4 we find five-dimensional corrections...

We present a false vacuum inflationary scenario in which the inflaton field takes values considerably larger than the Planck scale. It is based on a class of inflationary potentials which can be derived from singular Kähler potentials in supergravity. Our scenario allows for a detectable gravitational wave contribution to the microwave background anisotropy.

The Fermi Paradox is discussed in the light of the inflationary and brane world cosmologies. We conclude that some brane world cosmologies may be of relevance for the problem of civilizations spreading across our galaxy, strengthening the Fermi Paradox, but not the inflationary cosmologies, as has been proposed.

Brane inflation and the production of topological defects at the end of the inflationary phase are discussed. After a description of the inflationary set-up, we discuss the properties of the cosmic strings produced at the end of inflation. Specific examples of brane inflation are described, such as D-D , D3/D7 and modular inflations.