Related papers: Poly-instanton axion inflation
We consider a model of inflation in which the inflaton field is a rolling axion with a potential which is flat enough to support an intermediate phase of USR inflation. Because of the Chern-Simons interaction, one polarization of the gauge…
We first investigate the attractor solution associated with Assisted Inflation in Heterotic M-Theory to see if it is stable. By perturbing the solutions we find a solitary stable fixed point with the general path through phase space…
Recently proposed $SL(2,\mathbb{Z})$ invariant $\alpha$-attractor models have plateau potentials with respect to the inflaton and axion fields. The slope of the potential in the inflaton direction is exponentially suppressed at large values…
The weak gravity conjecture applied for the aligned natural inflation indicates that generically there can be a modulation of the inflaton potential, with a period determined by sub-Planckian axion scale. We study the oscillations in the…
A novel framework is proposed for embedding the natural inflation into the type IIA superstrings compactified on a Calabi-Yau (CY) three-fold. Inflaton is identified with axion of the Universal Hypermultiplet (UH). The other UH scalars…
We discuss quantum gravitational effects in Einstein theory coupled to periodic axion scalars to analyze the viability of several proposals to achieve superplanckian axion periods (aka decay constants) and their possible application to…
The string $\alpha^\prime$-correction to the usual Einstein action comprises a Gauss-Bonnet integrand multiplied by non-trivial functions of the modulus field $\chi$ and/or the dilaton field $\phi$. We discuss how the presence of such terms…
We study a particular version of the theory of cosmological $\alpha$-attractors with $\alpha=1/3$, in which both the dilaton (inflaton) field and the axion field are light during inflation. The kinetic terms in this theory originate from…
The early Universe inflation is well known as a promising theory to explain the origin of large scale structure of the Universe, a causal theory for the origin of primordial density fluctuations which may explain the observed density…
A period of rapidly accelerating expansion is expected in the early Universe implemented by a scalar field slowly rolling down along an asymptotically flat potential preferred by the current data. In this paper, we point out that this…
We discuss some model-independent implications of embedding (aligned) axionic inflation in string theory. As a consequence of string theoretic duality symmetries the pure cosine potentials of natural inflation are replaced by modular…
We numerically calculate the evolution of second order cosmological perturbations for an inflationary scalar field without resorting to the slow-roll approximation or assuming large scales. In contrast to previous approaches we therefore…
Recent cosmological observations suggest the presence of small but nonzero cosmological constant $\Lambda_{cos}^4 \simeq (2 \times 10^{-3} eV)^4$. It is an intriguing possibility that such a small cosmological constant is supplied by the…
We review conceptual aspects of inflationary scenarios able to produce primordial black holes, by amplifying the size of curvature fluctuations to the level required for triggering black hole formation. We identify general mechanisms to do…
Because of their quantum fluctuations, axion fields had a chance to experience field excursions traversing many minima of their potentials during inflation. We study this situation by analyzing the dynamics of an axion-spectator field…
We show that inflation in type IIB string theory driven by the volume modulus can be realized in the context of the racetrack-based Kallosh-Linde model (KL) of moduli stabilization. Inflation here arises through the volume modulus…
We present a particularly simple model of axion monodromy: Our axion is the lowest-lying KK-mode of the RR-2-form-potential $C_2$ in the standard Klebanov-Strassler throat. One can think of this inflaton candidate as being defined by the…
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 show that the cosmological abundance of string axions is much smaller than naive estimates if the Hubble scale of inflation, $H_{\rm inf}$, is sufficiently low (but can still be much higher than the axion masses) and if the inflation…
We examine the possibility of rolling tachyon to play the dual roll of inflaton at early epochs and dark matter at late times. We argue that enough inflation can be generated with the rolling tachyon either by invoking the large number of…