Related papers: Advances in Inflation in String Theory

Brane inflation and the production of topological defects at the end of the inflationary phase are discussed. After a description of the inflationary setup we discuss the properties of the cosmic strings produced at the end of inflation.…

We review the recent developments in obtaining accelerating cosmologies and/or inflation from higher-dimensional gravitational theories, in particular superstring theories in ten dimensions and M-theory in eleven dimensions. We first…

The encoding of an inflating patch of space-time in terms of a dual theory is discussed. Following Bousso's interpretation of the holographic principle, we find that those are generically described not by states in the dual theory but by…

We give a pedagogical introduction to string theory, D-branes and p-brane solutions.

Overall, brane inflation is compatible with the recent analysis of the WMAP data. Here we explore the constraints of WMAP and 2dFGRS data on the various brane inflationary scenarios. Brane inflation naturally ends with the production of…

We propose new large field inflation scenarios built on the framework of F-term axion monodromy. Our setup is based on string compactifications where D-branes create potentials for closed string axions via F-terms. Because the source of the…

We confront the recent proposal of Emerging Brane Inflation with WMAP3+SDSS, finding a scalar spectral index of $n_s=0.9659^{+0.0049}_{-0.0052}$ in excellent agreement with observations. The proposal incorporates a preceding phase of…

A characteristic of D-brane inflation is that fluctuations in the inflaton field can propagate at a speed significantly less than the speed of light. This yields observable effects that are distinct from those of single-field slow roll…

We discuss relationship between inflation and various models of production of density inhomogeneities due to strings, global monopoles, textures and other topological and non-topological defects. Neither of these models leads to a…

We address the issue of slow-roll in string theory models of inflation. Using a K\"{a}hler transformation and results from the D3-D7 model, we show why we expect flat directions to be present and slow-roll to be possible in general. We…

Starting with a study of the cosmological solution to the Einstein equations for the internal spacetime of an extreme supermassive cosmic string kink, and by evaluating the probability measure for the formation of such a kink in…

The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) constraints on string inspired ''brane inflation'' are investigated. Here, the inflaton field is interpreted as the distance between two branes placed in a flux-enriched background geometry…

Natural inflation relies on the existence of an axion decay constant which is super-Planckian. In string theory only sub-Planckian axion decay constants have been found in any controlled regime. However in field theory it is possible to…

The three-year data from WMAP are in stunning agreement with the simplest possible quadratic potential for chaotic inflation, as well as with new or symmetry-breaking inflation. We investigate the possibilities for incorporating these…

In this paper we show how the string landscape can be constrained using observational data. We illustrate this idea by focusing on Fibre Inflation which is a promising class of string inflationary models in type IIB flux compactifications.…

Motivated by the string landscape we examine scenarios for which inflation is a two-step process, with a comparatively short inflationary epoch near the string scale and a longer period at a much lower energy (like the TeV scale). We…

We continue our investigation of the 4d effective field theory for closed string axions in Type II compactifications with D-branes. The inclusion of St\"uckelberg couplings for the axions requires the presence of chiral fermions at D-brane…

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 study multifield contributions to the scalar power spectrum in an ensemble of six-field inflationary models obtained in string theory. We identify examples in which inflation occurs by chance, near an approximate inflection point, and we…

We outline the embedding of the vector curvaton scenario as a promising mechanism to generate statistical anisotropy within Type IIB string theory, where the vector field on a single D-brane plays the role of the vector curvaton. We first…