Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of Physics, August 2001. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

I will investigate the primordial squeezed limit bispectrum as produced by inflation in single-field models. Previous results have argued that generically, single-field inflation produces a negligible bispectrum. However, more careful evaluation yields a more ambiguous result. I will discuss an alternate method for calculating the squeezed limit bispectrum for a general single-field inflation model. I will also explore slow-roll inflation with a non-standard initial state, where we find an enhanced squeezed-limit. I will discuss the detectability of such models in various cosmological observables such as the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), Large Scale Structure, and mu-distortion of the CMB. / text

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Thesis (M.Sc.). / Written for the Dept. of Physics. Title from title page of PDF (viewed 2008/05/13). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.Sc.). / Written for the Dept. of Physics. Title from title page of PDF (viewed 2008/12/10). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston University

The topic of this thesis is temporal logical inference in atemporal models of time. The thesis presents a branching logic with observers for the purpose of this investigation. A series of theorems rigorously demonstrate that temporal reasoning is possible also in an atemporal world. 1

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Cheung Kai Chung Mars = 宇宙學中的題目 / 張啓聰. / Thesis submitted in: September 2005. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 93-95). / Text in English; abstracts in English and Chinese. / Cheung Kai Chung Mars = Yu zhou xue zhong de ti mu / Zhang Qicong. / Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- "Hubble's Law, the cosmic scale factor and redshift" --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- The Big Bang Model and Cosmic Microwave Background --- p.3 / Chapter 1.3 --- An overview of the universe --- p.4 / Chapter 1.4 --- Current Observation Results and Motivation --- p.6 / Chapter 1.5 --- Review of CMB calculation --- p.7 / Chapter 1.5.1 --- Friedmann Cosmologies --- p.8 / Chapter 1.5.2 --- The Perturbed Robertson-Walker Metric --- p.10 / Chapter 1.5.3 --- Boltzmann Equations --- p.13 / Chapter 1.5.4 --- Perturbative Einstein Equations --- p.16 / Chapter 2 --- Ionization History of The Universe --- p.18 / Chapter 2.1 --- Saha equation --- p.18 / Chapter 2.2 --- Peebles recombination --- p.19 / Chapter 2.3 --- RECFAST --- p.20 / Chapter 3 --- CMB Anisotropics --- p.22 / Chapter 3.1 --- The CMBA spectra --- p.23 / Chapter 3.1.1 --- Tight Coupling Limit --- p.23 / Chapter 3.1.2 --- Free Streaming --- p.25 / Chapter 3.1.3 --- The Anisotropy Spectrum --- p.27 / Chapter 3.1.4 --- CMBFAST --- p.28 / Chapter 4 --- Variation of Fundamental Constant and CMBA spectra --- p.30 / Chapter 4.1 --- The problem of units --- p.31 / Chapter 4.2 --- Modification of CMBFAST and conversion of units --- p.32 / Chapter 4.3 --- The constraints of varying constants using CMBA spectra --- p.35 / Chapter 4.4 --- Physics involved and variation of the spectra --- p.36 / Chapter 4.4.1 --- Effect of Recombination --- p.36 / Chapter 4.4.2 --- Variation of hP --- p.38 / Chapter 4.4.3 --- Variations of e and me --- p.41 / Chapter 4.4.4 --- Variations of g and c --- p.48 / Chapter 4.4.5 --- Constraints on the constants --- p.57 / Chapter 5 --- MCMC and CMBA Spectra --- p.59 / Chapter 5.1 --- Method --- p.60 / Chapter 5.1.1 --- Algorithm --- p.60 / Chapter 5.1.2 --- Check of Convergency --- p.61 / Chapter 5.2 --- Likelihood function --- p.62 / Chapter 5.3 --- Results --- p.66 / Chapter 5.3.1 --- MCMC investigation of varying α in the temperature spectrum --- p.67 / Chapter 5.3.2 --- MCMC investigation of varying α in the polarization spectrum --- p.69 / Chapter 5.3.3 --- MCMC investigation of varying α and cosmological parameters --- p.71 / Chapter 5.3.4 --- Summary --- p.73 / Chapter 6 --- Extra Dimensions and Cosmology --- p.74 / Chapter 6.1 --- A review of KK cosmology --- p.74 / Chapter 6.2 --- Non-flat extra dimension universe --- p.80 / Chapter 6.2.1 --- Close Extra Dimensions and Flat Usual Dimensions --- p.83 / Chapter 6.2.2 --- Open Extra Dimensions and Flat Usual Dimensions --- p.87 / Chapter 6.2.3 --- Summary: Possibility of Extra Dimension(s) --- p.91 / Bibliography --- p.93

Solid inflation is a unique inflationary model, in which inflatons have time-independent but spatially dependent vacuum expectation values. Since it does not conform to conventional inflationary models, it gives quite unique observational predictions, which in principle can be tested by observations. However, the original version of solid inflation hypothesizes an ideal type of solid: an isotropic solid. As a generalization, this thesis discusses a more realistic solid, which has a symmetry under a point group. As a result, its underlying structure can be maximally anisotropic even though it can still give isotropic predictions at the background and quadratic fluctuations in scalar modes. In another branch of generalizations, this thesis performs a thorough analysis of higher-derivative interactions in solid inflation, which the original version ignores.