Related papers: Perspective on completing natural inflation

In Aligned Natural Inflation, an alignment between different potential terms produces an inflaton excursion greater than the axion scales in the potential. We show that, starting from a general potential of two axions with two aligned…

We show how the motion through the extra dimensions of a gas of branes and antibranes can, under certain circumstances, produce an era of inflation as seen by observers trapped on a 3-brane, with the inflaton being the inter-brane…

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…

We analyze the core dynamics of critically coupled, superheavy gauge vortices in the (2+1) dimensional Einstein-Abelian-Higgs system. By numerically solving the Eistein and field equations for various values of the symmetry breaking scale,…

We study cosmic string formation within supersymmetric grand unified theories. We consider gauge groups having a rank between 4 and 8. We examine all possible spontaneous symmetry breaking patterns from the GUT down to the standard model…

In this paper we propose a two-field model of warm inflation motivated from a heterotic string construction. The model contains an axion and a dilaton-like field. We show that while warm inflation can take place in the axion-field…

We revisit natural inflation within the framework of metric-affine gravity, considering the impact of a periodic non-minimal coupling between the inflaton and the Nieh-Yan term. Such a term, alone, leads to linear inflation predictions in…

We propose a new inflation scenario in flux compactification, where a zero mode scalar field of extra components of the higher dimensional gauge field is identified with an inflaton. The scalar field is a pseudo Nambu-Goldstone boson of…

This paper represents an in-depth treatment of the chain inflation scenario. We fully determine the evolution of the universe in the model, the necessary conditions in order to have a successful inflationary period, and the matching with…

N-flation is a promising embedding of inflation in string theory in which many string axions combine to drive inflation. We characterize the dynamics of a general N-flation model with non-degenerate axion masses. Although the precise mass…

We compute all N-point primordial curvature correlation functions from inflation at tree-level up to N of order ten or more depending on the choice of parameters. This is achieved for resonant inflationary models in which the inflaton…

Inflationary models are usually based on dynamics of one or more scalar fields coupled to gravity. In this work we present a new class of inflationary models, gauge-flation or non-Abelian gauge field inflation, where slow-roll inflation is…

In type IIB superstring compactifications, incorporating log-loop corrections and higher-derivative ${(\alpha^\prime)}^3$-corrections can stabilize the overall volume of the compact internal space at exponentially large values. This…

String theory generically predicts the coupling between the Affleck-Dine field and axion field through higher-dimensional operators. We thus explore the Affleck-Dine baryogenesis on an axion background. It turns out that the axion…

Extensions of the Standard Model and general relativity featuring a UV fixed point can leave observable implications at accessible energies. Although mass parameters such as the Planck scale can appear through dimensional transmutation, all…

We investigate models in which the inflaton emerges as a composite field of a four dimensional, strongly interacting and nonsupersymmetric gauge theory featuring purely fermionic matter. We show that it is possible to obtain successful…

Successful inflationary models should (i) describe the data well; (ii) arise generically from sensible UV completions; (iii) be insensitive to detailed fine-tunings of parameters and (iv) make interesting new predictions. We argue that a…

Usually inflation ends either by a slow rolling of the inflaton field, which gradually becomes faster and faster, or by a first-order phase transition. We describe a model where inflation ends in a different way, due to a very rapid rolling…

These lectures provide an updated pedagogical treatment of the theoretical structure and phenomenology of some basic mechanisms for inflation, along with an overview of the structure of cosmological uplifts of holographic duality. A full…

We explore a new class of supersymmetric models of inflation where the inflaton is realised as a combination of a Higgs field and (gauge non-singlet) matter fields, using a "tribrid" structure of the superpotential. Inflation is associated…