We study an inflationary scenario with a vector field coupled with an inflaton field and show that the inflationary Universe is endowed with anisotropy for a wide range of coupling functions. This anisotropic inflation is a tracking solution where the energy density of the vector field follows that of the inflaton field irrespective of initial conditions. We find a universal relation between the anisotropy and a slow-roll parameter of inflation. Our finding has observational implications and gives a counterexample to the cosmic no-hair conjecture.

We study the statistical nature of primordial fluctuations from an anisotropic inflation which is realized by a vector field coupled to an inflaton. We find a suitable gauge, which we call the canonical gauge, for anisotropic inflation by generalizing the flat slicing gauge in conventional isotropic inflation. Using the canonical gauge, we reveal the structure of the couplings between curvature perturbations, vector waves, and gravitational waves. We identify two sources of anisotropy, i.e. the anisotropy due to the anisotropic expansion of the universe and that due to the anisotropic couplings among variables. It turns out that the latter effect is dominant. Since the coupling between the curvature perturbations and vector waves is the strongest one, the statistical anisotropy in the curvature perturbations is larger than that in gravitational waves. We find the cross correlation between the curvature perturbations and gravitational waves which never occurs in conventional inflation. We also find the linear polarization of gravitational waves. Finally, we discuss cosmological implication of our results.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figures;(V2) a reference adde

We study the backreaction problem in a mechanism of magnetogenesis from inflation. In usual analysis, it has been assumed that the backreaction due to electromagnetic fields spoils inflation once it becomes important. However, there exists no justification for this assumption. Hence, we analyze magnetogenesis from inflation by taking into account the backreaction. On the contrary to the naive expectation, we show that inflation still continues even after the backreaction begins to work. Nevertheless, it turns out that creation of primordial magnetic fields is significantly suppressed due to the backreaction. PACS numbers: 98.80.Cq, 98.80.Hw

We study the imprints of the anisotropic inflation on the CMB temperature fluctuations and polarizations. The statistical anisotropy stems not only from the direction dependence of curvature and tensor perturbations, but also from the cross-correlation between curvature and tensor perturbations, and the linear polarization of tensor perturbations. We show that offdiagonal TB and EB spectra as well as on-and off-diagonal TT, EE, BB and TE spectra are induced from the anisotropic inflation. We emphasize that the off-diagonal spectra induced by the cross-correlation could be a characteristic signature of the anisotropic inflation.