Related papers: Transplanckian axions !?
We continue the investigation of F-term axion monodromy inflation in string theory, while seriously taking the issue of moduli stabilization into account. For a number of closed and open string models, we show that they suffer from serious…
The inflationary paradigm has enjoyed phenomenological success, however, a compelling particle physics realization is still lacking. The key obstruction is that the requirement of a suitably flat scalar potential is sensitive to…
Large field excursions are required in a number of axion models of inflation. These models also possess global cosmic strings, around which the axion follows a path mirroring the inflationary trajectory. Cosmic strings are thus an…
An attractive candidate for the inflaton is an axion slowly rolling down a flat potential protected by a perturbative shift symmetry. Realisations of this idea within large field, natural and monomial inflation have been disfavoured by…
We consider cosmological consequences of string theory tachyon condensation. We show that it is very difficult to obtain inflation in the simplest versions of this theory. Typically, inflation in these theories could occur only at…
Axion fluctuations generated during inflation lead to isocurvature and non-Gaussian temperature fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background radiation. Following a previous analysis for the model independent string axion we consider the…
We propose a new field theory mechanism for generating an effective trans-Planckian decay constant from sub-Planckian ones. Using the minimal two axions and a hierarchy between two axion decay constants is sufficient for realizing inflation…
Flux couplings to string theory axions yield super-Planckian field ranges along which the axion potential energy grows. At the same time, other aspects of the physics remain essentially unchanged along these large displacements, respecting…
We search for effective axions with super-Planckian decay constants in type IIB string models. We argue that such axions can be realised as long winding trajectories in complex-structure moduli space by an appropriate flux choice. Our main…
Because the inflationary mechanism is extremely sensitive to UV-physics, the construction of theoretically robust models of inflation provides a unique window on Planck-scale physics. We review efforts to use an axion with a shift symmetry…
We study pseudoscalar inflation in the Einstein-Cartan-Palatini (first-order) formulation of gravity while allowing for torsion. We introduce two non-minimal interactions in the gravitational sector: pseudoscalar couplings to the Pontryagin…
Recently proposed two swampland criteria that arising from string theory landscape lead to the important challenge of the realization of single-field inflationary models. Especially one of swampland criteria which implies a large…
String and M-theory compactifications generically have compact moduli which can potentially act as the QCD axion. However, as demonstrated here, such a compact modulus can not play the role of a QCD axion and solve the strong CP problem if…
In this short note we clarify some aspects of the impact that the Weak Gravity Conjecture has on models of (generalized) natural inflation. We address in particular certain technical and conceptual concerns recently raised regarding the…
Instanton is known to exist in Euclidean spacetime only. Their role in real time dynamics is usually understood as tunneling effect by Wick rotation. We illustrate other effects of instanton in holography by investigating 5d effective…
In this work, we show that, in the presence of non-minimal coupling to gravity, it is possible to generate sizeable tensor modes in single-field models without transplanckian field values. These transplanckian field values apparently needed…
Models of axion inflation based on a single cosine potential require the axion decay constant $f$ to be super-Planckian in size. However, $f > M_{Pl}$ is disfavored by the Weak Gravity Conjecture (WGC). It is then pertinent to ask if one…
We investigate the role of gauge and gravitational instantons in the context of the Swampland program. Our focus is on the global symmetry breaking they induce, especially in the presence of fermions. We first recall and make more precise…
In this work we introduce the rescaled $\mathcal{R}^2$-corrected minimally coupled scalar field theory, a theory that contains minimal quantum corrections of the single scalar field Lagrangian. We develop the theoretical framework in the…
With the Planck 2015 result, most of the well known canonical large field inflation models turned out to be strongly disfavored. Axion inflation is one of such models which is becoming marginalized with the increasing precession of CMB…