Related papers: Accidental Inflation from K\"ahler Uplifting
We develop a stochastic description of small-field inflationary histories with a graceful exit in a random potential whose Hessian is a Gaussian random matrix as a model of the unstructured part of the string landscape. The dynamical…
Linking the slow-roll scenario and the Dirac-Born-Infeld scenario of ultra-relativistic roll (where, thanks to the warp factor, the inflaton moves slowly even with an ultra-relativistic Lorentz factor), we find that the KKLMMT D3/anti-D3…
Following Freivogel {\it et al} we consider inflation in a predictive (or `friendly') region of the landscape of string vacua, as modeled by Arkani-Hamed, Dimopoulos and Kachru. In such a region the dimensionful coefficients of…
When modelling inflaton fluctuations as a free quantum scalar field, the initial vacuum is conventionally imposed at the infinite past. This is called the Bunch-Davies (BD) vacuum. If however an asymptotically Minkowskian past does not…
We consider conditions necessary for a successful implementation of so-called assisted inflation. We generalize the applicability of assisted inflation beyond exponential potentials as originally proposed to include standard chaotic…
Higher-order alpha'-corrections are a generic feature of type IIB string compactifications. In KKLT-like models of moduli stabilization they provide a mechanism of breaking the no-scale structure of the volume modulus. We present a model of…
In the present paper, we study the inflationary phenomenology of a $k$-inflation corrected Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet theory. Non-canonical kinetic terms are known for producing Jean instabilities or superluminal sound wave velocities in the…
We explore the mechanics of inflation in simplified extra-dimensional models involving an inflaton interacting with the Einstein-Maxwell system in two extra dimensions. The models are Goldilocks-like in that they are just complicated enough…
We obtain cosmological constraints on models of inflation which exhibit rapid roll solutions. Rapid roll attractors exist for potentials with large mass terms and are thus of interest for inflationary model building within string theory. We…
We propose an open hybrid inflation scenario that produces an open universe with a `tilted' n>1 spectrum of metric perturbations. The model contains a symmetry breaking field that tunnels to its true vacuum, producing a single bubble inside…
Motivated by trans-Planckian issues in inflation, we determine the Hilbert space and amplitudes of quantum perturbations in the general low-energy effective theory of (multi-)field inflation without relying on the sub-horizon limit. The…
Theories where the Planck scale is dynamically generated from dimensionless interactions provide predictive inflationary potentials and super-Planckian field variations. We first study the minimal single-field realisation in the low-energy…
In this paper we will illustrate how to constrain unavoidable K\"ahler corrections for ${\cal N}=1$ supergravity (SUGRA) inflation from the recent Planck data. We will show that the non-renormalizable K\"ahler operators will induce in…
We propose new supergravity models describing chaotic Linde- and Starobinsky-like inflation in terms of a single chiral superfield. The key ideas to obtain a positive vacuum energy during large field inflation are (i) stabilization of the…
We calculate the power spectrum of adiabatic density perturbations in an open inflationary model in which inflation occurs in two stages. First an epoch of old inflation creates a large, smooth universe, solving the horizon and homogeneity…
For the first time, we investigate the non-perturbative dynamics of single field inflation with a departure from slow-roll. Using simulations, we find that oscillatory features in the potential can drastically alter the course of inflation,…
We study the effective field theory of inflation, i.e. the most general theory describing the fluctuations around a quasi de Sitter background, in the case of single field models. The scalar mode can be eaten by the metric by going to…
A particular extension of Einstein's General Relativity up to and including quartic terms in the curvature tensor is minimal in the sense that it has a unique maximally symmetric vacuum and only a massless spin-2 excitation in its spectrum…
We propose a new class of natural inflation models based on a hidden scale invariance. In a very generic Wilsonian effective field theory with an arbitrary number of scalar fields, which exhibits scale invariance via the dilaton, the…
Hybrid inflation, driven by a Fayet-Iliopoulos (FI) D term, is an intriguing inflationary model. In its usual formulation, it however suffers from several shortcomings. These pertain to the origin of the FI mass scale, the stability of…