Related papers: Monodromy in the CMB: Gravity Waves and String Inf…
We point out that the inclusion of a string component contributing around 5% to the CMB power spectrum amplitude on large scales can increase the preferred value of the spectral index n_s of density fluctuations measured by CMB experiments.…
The continuous shift symmetry of axions is at the heart of several realizations of inflationary models. In particular, axion monodromy inflation aims at achieving super-Planckian field ranges for the inflaton in the context of string…
We present a new mechanism for slow-roll inflation based on higher dimensional supersymmetric gauge theory compactified to four dimensions with twisted (supersymmetry breaking) boundary conditions. These boundary conditions lead to a…
We study D-brane inflation in a warped conifold background that includes brane-position dependent corrections for the nonperturbative superpotential. Instead of stabilizing the volume modulus chi at instantaneous minima of the potential and…
We point out three correlated predictions of the axion monodromy inflation model: large amplitude of gravitational waves, suppression of power on horizon scales and on scales relevant for the formation of dwarf galaxies. While these…
We find a general model of {\em single-field} inflation within the context of type IIB string theory compactified on large volume Calabi-Yau orientifolds with $h^{2,1} > h^{1,1} = 2$. The inflaton is the axion part of the complexified…
Large field inflation is arguably the simplest and most natural variant of slow-roll inflation. Axion monodromy may be the most promising framework for realising this scenario. As one of its defining features, the long-range polynomial…
In brane inflation, the relative brane position in the bulk of a brane world is the inflaton. For branes moving in a compact manifold, the approximate translational (or shift) symmetry is necessary to suppress the inflaton mass, which then…
We introduce a simple string model of inflation, in which the inflaton field can take trans-Planckian values while driving a period of slow-roll inflation. This leads naturally to a realisation of large field inflation, inasmuch as the…
We derive a microscopic bound on the maximal field variation of the inflaton during warped D-brane inflation. By a result of Lyth, this implies an upper limit on the amount of gravitational waves produced during inflation. We show that a…
We study a string theory inspired model for hybrid inflation in the context of a brane-antibrane system partially compactified on a compact submanifold of (a caricature of) a Calabi-Yau manifold. The interbrane distance acts as the…
We analyze the quantum-corrected moduli space of D7-brane position moduli with special emphasis on inflationary model building. D7-brane deformation moduli are key players in two recently proposed inflationary scenarios: The first, D7-brane…
One possibility for identifying the inflaton in the framework of string theory is that it is a $D$-brane modulus. This option involves a specific, non-canonical form of the kinetic energy -- the Dirac-Born-Infeld action. This note…
The slow-roll inflation is a beautiful paradigm, yet the inflaton potential can hardly be sufficiently flat when unknown gravitational effects are taken into account. However, the hybrid inflation models constructed in D = 4 N = 1…
We study cosmological inflation within a recently proposed framework of perturbative moduli stabilisation in type IIB/F theory compactifications on Calabi-Yau threefolds. The stabilisation mechanism utilises three stacks of magnetised…
We discuss string corrections to the effective potential in various models of brane inflation. These corrections contribute to the mass of the inflaton candidate and may improve its slow-roll properties. In particular, in orientifold string…
A supersymmetric inflationary stage dominated by an $F$-term has the problem that the flatness of the potential is spoiled by supergravity corrections, that is the slow-roll parameter $\eta$ gets contributions of order unity. We show that…
We study possible string theory compactifications which, in the low-energy limit, describe chaotic inflation with a stabilizer field. We first analyze type IIA setups where the inflationary potential arises from a D6-brane wrapping an…
We study the possibility of extended inflation in the effective theory of gravity from strings compactified to four dimensions and find that it strongly depends on the mechanism of supersymmetry breaking. We consider a general class of…
We propose a novel inflationary scenario in string theory in which the inflaton field is a 'Wilson line' degree of freedom in the worldvolume of a probe Dp-brane, in a warped flux compactification. Kinetic terms for Wilson line fields on…