arXiv subjects

Gianfranco Pradisi

Publications and source records attributed to Gianfranco Pradisi.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Einstein-Cartan pseudoscalaron inflation, reheating and nonthermal leptogenesis

We study the postinflationary dynamics of an Einstein-Cartan-Holst gravity-motivated inflationary scenario, known as Einstein-Cartan pseudoscalaron inflation, coupled to a type-I seesaw extension of the Standard Model with three heavy right-handed Majorana neutrinos. In particular, we show that nonthermal leptogenesis emerges as a necessary and self-consistent mechanism for generating the observed baryon asymmetry of the Universe, mainly because of the universal coupling of the inflaton to the additional heavy Majorana fermions. The resulting framework provides theoretical predictions that are fully compatible with the latest cosmological constraints from the Cosmic Microwave Background, Baryon Acoustic Oscillations, and Big Bang Nucleosynthesis, as well as with neutrino oscillation experiments, for a wide range of the fundamental Barbero-Immirzi model parameter $γ$, which controls the inflationary and postinflationary phases. In particular, for $γ\sim -1/100$ and a lightest Majorana-neutrino mass of order $10^{13}$ GeV, we find a scalar spectral index $n_s \sim 0.970$, a tensor-to-scalar ratio $r \sim 0.004$, for a number of e-folds before the end of inflation $N_e \lesssim 60$, and a baryon-to-entropy ratio $n_B/s \sim 8.7 \times 10^{-11}$.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2024

Introduction to the number of $e$-folds in slow-roll inflation

In this review, a pedagogical introduction to the concepts of slow-roll inflationary Universe and number of $e$-folds is provided. In particular, the differences between the basic notion of number of $e$-folds ($N_e$), total number of $e$-folds ($N_T$) and number of $e$-folds before the end of inflation ($N$), are outlined. The proper application of the number of $e$-folds before the end of inflation is discussed both as a time-like variable for the scalar field evolution and as a key parameter for computing inflationary predictions.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2024

Einstein-Cartan pseudoscalaron inflation

We study a class of early universe cosmological models based on Einstein-Cartan gravity and including a higher derivative term corresponding to a power of the Holst scalar curvature. The resulting effective action is basically given by General Relativity and an additional neutral pseudoscalar field (the pseudoscalaron), unequivocally related to the corresponding components of the torsion, that necessarily acquire a dynamics. The induced pseudoscalaron potential provides a realistic inflationary phase together with a very rich postinflationary epoch, resulting by the coupling of the pseudoscalaron to ordinary matter.

hep-th↗

arXiv2022

Minimal Leptogenesis in Brane-inspired Cosmology

We discuss how a post inflationary reheating phase characterized by a nonstandard multiple scalar field cosmology can change the thermal history of the universe, affecting minimal high scale leptogenesis. In particular, we explore a class of models where a set of scalar fields in a brane-inspired dynamical scenario modifies the Boltzmann equations concerning standard leptogenesis. The produced lepton asymmetry, due to the decays of heavy Majorana right-handed neutrinos responsible for generating Standard Model neutrino masses via the type-I seesaw, is affected as well.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2022

(In)equivalence of Metric-Affine and Metric Effective Field Theories

In a geometrical approach to gravity the metric and the (gravitational) connection can be independent and one deals with metric-affine theories. We construct the most general action of metric-affine effective field theories, including a generic matter sector, where the connection does not carry additional dynamical fields. Among other things, this helps in identifying the complement set of effective field theories where there are other dynamical fields, which can have an interesting phenomenology. Within the latter set, we study in detail a vast class where the Holst invariant (the contraction of the curvature with the Levi-Civita antisymmetric tensor) is a dynamical pseudoscalar. In the Einstein-Cartan case (where the connection is metric compatible and fermions can be introduced) we also comment on the possible phenomenological role of dynamical dark photons from torsion and compute interactions of the above-mentioned pseudoscalar with a generic matter sector and the metric. Finally, we show that in an arbitrary realistic metric-affine theory featuring a generic matter sector the equivalence principle always emerges at low energies without the need to postulate it.

hep-th↗

arXiv2022

Conformal Metric-Affine Gravities

We revisit the gauge symmetry related to integrable projective transformations in metric-affine formalism, identifying the gauge field of the Weyl (conformal) symmetry as a dynamical component of the affine connection. In particular, we show how to include the local scaling symmetry as a gauge symmetry of a large class of geometric gravity theories, introducing a compensator dilaton field that naturally gives rise to a Stückelberg sector where a spontaneous breaking mechanism of the conformal symmetry is at work to generate a mass scale for the gauge field. For Ricci-based gravities that include, among others, General Relativity, $f(R)$ and $f(R,R_{μν}R^{μν})$ theories and the EiBI model, we prove that the on-shell gauge vector associated to the scaling symmetry can be identified with the torsion vector, thus recovering and generalizing conformal invariant theories in the Riemann-Cartan formalism, already present in the literature.

hep-th↗

arXiv2021

Variable Inflaton Equation of State and Reheating

We explore the consequences of a time-dependent inflaton Equation-of-State (EoS) parameter in the context of the post-inflationary perturbative Boltzmann reheating. In particular, we numerically solve the perturbative coupled system of Boltzmann equations involving the inflaton energy density, the radiation energy density and the related entropy density and temperature of the produced particle thermal bath. We exploit reasonable Ansätze for the EoS and discuss the robustness of the Boltzmann system. We also comment on the possible microscopic origin related to a time dependent inflaton potential, discussing the consequences on a preheating stage and the related (primordial) gravitational waves.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2020

Inflationary gravitational waves and exotic pre Big Bang Nucleosynthesis cosmology

According to the most popular scenario, the early Universe should have experienced an accelerated expansion phase, called Cosmological Inflation, after which the standard Big Bang Cosmology would have taken place giving rise to the radiation-dominated epoch. However, the details of the inflationary scenario are far to be completely understood. Thus, in this paper we study if possible additional (exotic) cosmological phases could delay the beginning of the standard Big Bang history and alter some theoretical predictions related to the inflationary cosmological perturbations, like, for instance, the order of magnitude of the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2020

Heterotic-Type I Dual Pairs, Rigid Branes and Broken Susy

The moduli space of toroidal type I vacua, which are consistent at the non-perturbative level, consists of independent branches characterized by the number (0, 16 or 32) of rigid branes sitting on top of orientifold planes. This structure persists also when supersymmetry is spontaneously broken a la Scherk-Schwarz. We show that all the components of the moduli space in dimension $D\ge 5$ indeed admit heterotic dual components, by explicitly constructing heterotic-type I dual pairs with the rank of the gauge group reduced by 0, 8 or 16 units. In the presence of spontaneous breaking of supersymmetry, the dual pairs we consider are also free of tachyonic instabilities at the one-loop level, provided the scale of supersymmetry breaking is lower than the string scale.

hep-th↗

arXiv2020

Energy Density, Temperature and Entropy Dynamics in Perturbative Reheating

We discuss the perturbative decay of the energy density of a non standard inflaton field $ρ_ϕ$ and the corresponding creation of the energy density of the relativistic fields $ρ_r$ at the end of inflation, in the perfect fluid description, refining some concepts and providing some new computations. In particular, the process is characterized by two fundamental time scales. The first one, $t_\text{max}$, occurs when the energy density $ρ_r$ reaches its largest value, slightly after the beginning of the reheating phase. The second one, $t_\text{reh}$, is the time in which the reheating is completely realized and the thermalization is attained. By assuming a non-instantaneous reheating phase, we are able to derive the energy densities and the temperatures of the produced relativistic bath at $t_\text{max}$ and $t_\text{reh}$, as well as the value of the corresponding horizon entropy $S_\text{hor}$, for an Equation-of-State (EoS) parameter $w\ne 0$.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2019

Fibre Inflation and Reheating

We present constraints on the reheating era within the string Fibre Inflation scenario, in terms of the effective equation-of-state parameter of the reheating fluid, $w_{reh}$. The results of the analysis, completely independent on the details of the inflaton physics around the vacuum, illustrate the behavior of the number of $e$-foldings during the reheating stage, $N_{reh}$, and of the final reheating temperature, $T_{reh}$, as functions of the scalar spectral index, $n_s$. We analyze our results with respect to the current bounds given by the PLANCK mission data and to upcoming cosmological experiments. We find that large values of the equation-of-state parameter ($w_{reh}>1/3$) are particularly favored as the scalar spectral index is of the order of $n_s\sim 0.9680$, with a $σ_{n_s}\sim 0.002$ error. Moreover, we compare the behavior of the general reheating functions $N_{reh}$ and $T_{reh}$ in the Fibre Inflation scenario with that extracted by the class of the $α$-attractor models with $α=2$. We find that the corresponding reheating curves are very similar in the two cases.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2018

On Inflationary Scale, Reheating Scale and Pre-BBN Cosmology with Scalar Fields

In this paper, we discuss the constraints on the reheating temperature supposing an early post-reheating cosmological phase dominated by one or more simple scalar fields produced from inflaton decay and decoupled from matter and radiation. In addition, we explore the combined effects of the reheating and non-standard scalar field phases on the inflationary number of $e$-foldings.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2017

Open Strings and Electric Fields in Compact Spaces

We analyse open strings with background electric fields in the internal space, T-dual to branes moving with constant velocities in the internal space. We find that the direction of the electric fields inside a two torus, dual to the D brane velocities, has to be quantised such that the corresponding direction is compact. This implies that D-brane motion in the internal torus is periodic, with a periodicity that can be parametrically large in terms of the internal radii. By S-duality, this is mapped into an internal magnetic field in a three torus, a quantum mechanical analysis of which yields a similar result, i.e. the parallel direction to the magnetic field has to be compact. Furthermore, for the magnetic case, we find the Landau level degeneracy as being given by the greatest common divisor of the flux numbers. We carry on the string quantisation and derive the relevant partition functions for these models. Our analysis includes also the case of oblique electric fields which can arise when several stacks of branes are present. Compact dimensions and/or oblique sectors influence the energy loss of the system through pair-creation and thus can be relevant for inflationary scenarios with branes. Finally, we show that the compact energy loss is always larger than the non-compact one.

hep-th↗

arXiv2017

Non-Supersymmetric Magic Theories and Ehlers Truncations

We consider the non-supersymmetric "magic" theories based on the split quaternion and the split complex division algebras. We show that these theories arise as "Ehlers" $SL(2,\mathbb{R})$ and $SL(3,\mathbb{R})$ truncations of the maximal supergravity theory, exploiting techniques related to very-extended Kac-Moody algebras. We also generalise the procedure to other $SL(n,\mathbb{R})$ truncations, resulting in additional classes of non-supersymmetric theories, as well as to truncations of non-maximal theories. Finally, we discuss duality orbits of extremal black-hole solutions in some of these non-supersymmetric theories.

hep-th↗

arXiv2014

Non-geometric orbifolds and wrapping rules

We show that the number of half-supersymmetric p-branes in the Type II theories compactified on orbifolds is determined by the wrapping rules recently introduced, provided that one accounts correctly for both geometric and non-geometric T-dual configurations. Starting from the Type II theories compactified on K3, we analyze their toroidal dimensional reductions, showing how the resulting half-supersymmetric p-branes satisfy the wrapping rules only by taking into account all the possible higher-dimensional origins. We then consider Type II theories compactified on the orbifold T^6/(Z_2 \times Z_2 ), whose massless four-dimensional theory is an N=2 supergravity. Again, the wrapping rules are obeyed only if one includes the complete orbit of the T-duality group, namely either Type IIA or Type IIB theories compactified on either the geometric or the non-geometric T-dual orbifold. Finally, we comment on the interpretation of our results in the framework of the duality between the Heterotic string compactified on K3 \times T^2 and the Type II string compactified on a Calabi-Yau threefold.

hep-th↗

arXiv2012

Heterotic T-folds with a small number of neutral moduli

We discuss non-geometric supersymmetric heterotic string models in D=4, in the framework of the free fermionic construction. We perform a systematic scan of models with four a priori left-right asymmetric Z_2 projections and shifts. We analyze some 2^{20} models, identifying 18 inequivalent classes and addressing variants generated by discrete torsions. They do not contain geometrical or trivial neutral moduli, apart from the dilaton. However, we show the existence of flat directions in the form of exactly marginal deformations and identify patterns of symmetry breaking where product gauge groups, realized at level one, are broken to their diagonal at higher level. We also describe an "inverse Gepner map" from Heterotic to Type II models that could be used, in certain non geometric settings, to define "effective" topological invariants.

hep-th↗

arXiv2011

Non-perturbative transitions among intersecting-brane vacua

We investigate the transmutation of D-branes into Abelian magnetic backgrounds on the world-volume of higher-dimensional branes, within the framework of global models with compact internal dimensions. The phenomenon, T-dual to brane recombination in the intersecting-brane picture, shares some similarities to inverse small-instanton transitions in non-compact spaces, though in this case the Abelian magnetic background is a consequence of the compactness of the internal manifold, and is not ascribed to a zero-size non-Abelian instanton growing to maximal size. We provide details of the transition in various supersymmetric orientifolds and non-supersymmetric tachyon-free vacua with Brane Supersymmetry Breaking, both from brane recombination and from a field theory Higgs mechanism viewpoints.

hep-th↗

arXiv2010

Non-geometrical Compactifications with Few Moduli

The stabilization of moduli is one of the main problems in string theory. In this talk I will discuss some stringy mechanisms based on non-geometrical compactifications to obtain four dimensional models with a reduced number of moduli.

hep-th↗