Inflation in an external four-form gauge field

We consider the possibility that the universe, viewed as a three-brane, originated in a region of strong external field strength due to a four-form gauge field in the bulk. It is shown that in a scenario of this kind inflation is generic for a wide range of initial conditions. This is true even for small field inflation with a simple quadratic inflaton potential, as well as for Higgs potentials with the initial field well away from the local maximum, not necessarily starting from rest. The power spectrum, spectral index, and $r$ parameter help to constrain parameters in this scenario, and $r<0.1$ favors Higgs potentials.