We consider the dilaton in the strong string-coupling limit and elaborate on the original idea of Damour and Polyakov whereby the dilaton coupling to matter is minimized and vanishes at a finite value of the dilaton field. Combining this type of coupling with an exponential potential, the effective potential of the dilaton becomes matter density dependent. We study the background cosmology, showing that the dilaton can play the role of dark energy. We also analyze the constraints imposed by the absence of violation of the equivalence principle. Imposing these constraints and assuming that the dilaton plays the role of dark energy, we consider the consequences of the dilaton on large scale structures and, in particular, the behavior of the slip functions and the growth index at low redshift.

We consider modified gravity models driven by a scalar field whose effects are screened in high density regions due to the presence of nonlinearities in its interaction potential and/or its coupling to matter. Our approach covers chameleon, f(R) gravity, dilaton and symmetron models and allows a unified description of all these theories. We find that the dynamics of modified gravity are entirely captured by the time variation of the scalar field mass and its coupling to matter evaluated at the cosmological minimum of its effective potential, where the scalar field has sat since an epoch prior to big bang nucleosynthesis. This new parametrization of modified gravity allows one to reconstruct the potential and coupling to matter and therefore to analyze the full dynamics of the models, from the scale dependent growth of structures at the linear level to nonlinear effects requiring N-body simulations. This procedure is illustrated with explicit examples of reconstruction for chameleon, dilaton, f(R) and symmetron models.

We analyze the PVLAS results using a chameleon field whose properties depend on the environment. We find that, assuming a runaway bare potential $V(\varphi )$ and a universal coupling to matter, the chameleon potential is such that the scalar field can act as dark energy. Moreover, the chameleon-field model is compatible with the CERN Axion Solar Telescope results, fifth-force experiments, and cosmology.

We investigate the cosmological consequences of particle physics theories that admit stable loops of superconducting cosmic string—vortons. General symmetry-breaking schemes are considered, in which strings are formed at one energy scale and subsequently become superconducting in a secondary phase transition at what may be a considerably lower energy scale. We estimate the abundances of the ensuing vortons, and thereby derive constraints on the relevant particle physics models from cosmological observations. For a range of values of the dimensionless parameters in the analysis, these constraints significantly restrict the category of admissible grand unified theories. However, we demonstrate that the constraints are quite compatible with recently proposed effects whereby superconducting strings may have been formed close to the electroweak phase transition.

Developing our understanding of how correlations evolve during inflation is crucial if we are to extract information about the early Universe from our late-time observables. To that end, we revisit the time evolution of scalar field correlators on de Sitter spacetime in the Schrödinger picture. By direct manipulation of the Schrödinger equation, we write down simple “equations of motion” for the coefficients which determine the wavefunction. Rather than specify a particular interaction Hamiltonian, we assume only very basic properties (unitarity, de Sitter invariance and locality) to derive general consequences for the wavefunction’s evolution. In particular, we identify a number of “constants of motion” — properties of the initial state which are conserved by any unitary dynamics — and show how this can be used to partially fix the cubic and quartic wavefunction coefficients at weak coupling. We further constrain the time evolution by deriving constraints from the de Sitter isometries and show that these reduce to the familiar conformal Ward identities at late times. Finally, we show how the evolution of a state from the conformal boundary into the bulk can be described via a number of “transfer functions” which are analytic outside the horizon for any local interaction. These objects exhibit divergences for particular values of the scalar mass, and we show how such divergences can be removed by a renormalisation of the boundary wavefunction — this is equivalent to performing a “Boundary Operator Expansion” which expresses the bulk operators in terms of regulated boundary operators. Altogether, this improved understanding of the wavefunction in the bulk of de Sitter complements recent advances from a purely boundary perspective, and reveals new structure in cosmological correlators.