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We study reheating in some one and two field realizations of fibre inflation. We find that reheating begins with a phase of preheating in which long wavelength fluctuation modes are excited. In two field models there is a danger that the parametric amplification of infrared fluctuations in the second scalar field - associated with an entropy mode - might induce an instability of the curvature fluctuations. We show that, at least in the models we consider, the entropy mode has a sufficiently large mass to prevent this instability. Hence, from the point of view of reheating the models we consider are well-behaved.

In contrast to many other inflationary Universe models, chaotic inflation does not depend on fine tuning initial conditions. Within the context of linear perturbation theory, it is shown that chaotic inflation is stable towards both metric and matter perturbations. Neglecting gravitational perturbations, it is shown that chaotic inflation is an attractor in initial condition space.

A review of the cosmic string scenario of structure formation is given, emphasizing the basic points and the current status and problems. The main results are that in the context of a cosmic string model, hot dark matter is an acceptable dark matter candidate. The cosmic string model predicts planar density enhancements, the most numerous and prominent of which have planar dimensions comparable to the comoving horizon at teq, the time of equal matter and radiation. Cosmic strings also give rise to a distinguished signal in the microwave background.

We review the status of String Gas Cosmology after the 2015 Planck data release. String gas cosmology predicts an almost scale-invariant spectrum of cosmological perturbations with a slight red tilt, like the simplest inflationary models. It also predicts a scale-invariant spectrum of gravitational waves with a slight blue tilt, unlike inflationary models which predict a red tilt of the gravitational wave spectrum. String gas cosmology yields two consistency relations which determine the tensor to scalar ratio and the slope of the gravitational wave spectrum given the amplitude and tilt of the scalar spectrum. We show that these consistency relations are in good agreement with the Planck data. We discuss future observations which will be able to differentiate between the predictions of inflation and those of string gas cosmology., Comment: Invited review article for the "focus issue" of Classical and Quantum Gravity : "Planck and the fundamentals of cosmology", 17 pages, 3 figures

Following recent claims relative to the question of large anisotropy production in regular bouncing scenarios, we study the evolution of such anisotropies in a model where an Ekpyrotic phase of contraction is followed by domination of a Galileon-type Lagrangian which generates a non-singular bounce. We show that the anisotropies decrease during the phase of Ekpyrotic contraction (as expected) and that they can be constrained to remain small during the non-singular bounce phase (a non-trivial result). Specifically, we derive the e-folding number of the phase of Ekpyrotic contraction which leads to a present-day anisotropy in agreement with current observational bounds., 12 pages, 5 figures

We consider linear perturbations about a homogeneous and isotropic cosmological background in the projectable version of Ho\v{r}ava-Lifshitz gravity. Starting from the action for cosmological perturbations, we identify the canonically normalized fluctuation variables. We find that - in contrast to what happens in the non-projectable version of the theory - the extra scalar cosmological perturbation mode is already dynamical at the level of linear perturbations. For values of the parameter $\lambda$ in the range $1/3 < \lambda < 1$, the extra mode is ghost-like, for values $1 < \lambda$ and $\lambda < 1/3$ it is tachyonic. This indicates a problem for the projectable version of Ho\v{r}ava-Lifshitz gravity., Comment: 13 pages

We study how the resonant decay of moduli fields arising in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) could affect large scale curvature perturbations in the early universe. It has been known for some time that the presence of entropy perturbations in a multi-component system can act as seeds for the curvature perturbations on all scales. These entropy perturbations could be amplified exponentially if one of the moduli decays via stochastic resonance, affecting the curvature power spectrum in the process. By imposing the COBE normalization on this power spectrum, one could put constraints on the masses and couplings of the underlying particle physics model without having to rely on collider experiments. We discuss in detail the case of the MSSM but this method could be applied to other theories beyond the Standard Model., Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure, revtex4, comments added in section II, 1 reference added

In hep-th/0508194 it was shown how non-perturbative corrections to gravity can resolve the big bang singularity, leading to a bouncing universe. Depending on the scale of the non-perturbative corrections, the temperature at the bounce may be close to or higher than the Hagedorn temperature. If matter is made up of strings, then massive string states will be excited near the bounce, and the bounce will occur inside (or at the onset of) the Hagedorn phase for string matter. As we discuss in this paper, in this case cosmological fluctuations can be generated via the string gas mechanism recently proposed in hep-th/0511140. In fact, the model discussed here demonstrates explicitly that it is possible to realize the assumptions made in hep-th/0511140 in the context of a concrete set of dynamical background equations. We also calculate the spectral tilt of thermodynamic stringy fluctuations generated in the Hagedorn regime in this bouncing universe scenario. Generally we find a scale-invariant spectrum with a red tilt which is very small but does not vanish.

In the course of the past decade, Andrei Linde has almost single-handedly crafted the inflationary Universe scenario. The inflationary Universe has now become nearly as much part of the standard cosmological model as the theory of the expanding Universe itself. It represents a quantum leap in our understanding of the formation and evolution of the Universe. A whole range of questions about the structure of the Universe now admit causal and quantitative answers.

Presents a survey of two modern cosmological scenarios-which attempt to explain the formation of galaxies and clusters of galaxies. The author discusses the need for new cosmological models. He summarises the inflationary-universe scenario and explain the mechanism by which classical energy density perturbations are produced. He discusses cosmic strings and their role in galaxy formation. He analyses one particular model of galaxy formation-the model based on cosmic strings and hot dark matter-in more detail. Finally, he discusses some aspects of large-scale structure and some specific predictions from cosmic strings.

After reviewing the most important aspects of the cosmic-string model of formation of structure, recent results on galaxy formation are summarized. The origin of galactic angular momentum via tidal torquing is discussed, and the evolution of the mass function of galaxies is studied.