Related papers: Fat Inflatons, Large Turns and the $\eta$-problem

Strongly non-geodesic, or rapidly turning trajectories in multifield inflation have attracted much interest recently from both theoretical and phenomenological perspectives. Most models with large turning rates in the literature are…

A supersymmetric inflationary stage dominated by an $F$-term has the problem that the flatness of the potential is spoiled by supergravity corrections, that is the slow-roll parameter $\eta$ gets contributions of order unity. We show that…

Realising $F$-term slow-roll inflation in supergravity is non-trivial due to the well-known $\eta$-problem. The common strategy to solve the problem is to impose a shift symmetry on the K\"ahler potential, but this often leads to a negative…

Any one-field inflation is actually realized in a multifield configuration because the inflaton must have couplings with other fields to reheat the universe and is coupled to all other fields at least gravitationally. In all single inflaton…

We argue that the eta-problem in supergravity inflation cannot be solved without knowledge of the ground state of hidden sectors that are gravitationally coupled to the inflaton. If the hidden sector breaks supersymmetry independently, its…

We consider the generation of large-scale magnetic fields in slow-roll inflation. The inflaton field is described in a supergravity framework where the conformal invariance of the electromagnetic field is generically and naturally broken.…

The eta problem is one of the most significant obstacles to building a successful inflationary model in string theory. Planck mass suppressed corrections to the inflaton potential generally lead to inflaton masses of order the Hubble scale…

We find multi-scalar effective field theories (EFTs) that can achieve a slow inflationary roll despite having a scalar potential that does not satisfy the usual slow-roll condition (d V)^2 << V^2/Mp^2. They evade the usual slow-roll…

Warm inflationary dynamics is shown to satisfy both the slow-roll and density perturbation constraints for $m_{\phi} \gg H$ or equivalently $\eta \gg 1$ and for inflaton field amplitudes much below the Planck scale, $<\phi > < m_{pl}$. I…

Single field models of inflation capable to produce primordial black holes usually require a significant departure from the standard, perturbative slow-roll regime. In fact, in many of these scenarios, the size of the slow-roll parameter…

We revisit models of natural inflation and show that the single-field effective theory described by the potential $V(a)\sim \cos\frac{a}{f}$ breaks down as the inflaton $a$ makes large-field excursions, even for values of $f$ smaller than…

We re-examine large scalar fields within effective field theory, in particular focussing on the issues raised by their use in inflationary models (as suggested by BICEP2 to obtain primordial tensor modes). We argue that when the large-field…

We study models of inflation where the inflaton corresponds to a flat direction in field space and its mass term is generated by gravity mediated soft supersymmetry breaking at high scale. Assuming the inflaton to have non negligible…

Supersymmetric hybrid inflation is an exquisite framework to connect inflationary cosmology to particle physics at the scale of grand unification. Ending in a phase transition associated with spontaneous symmetry breaking, it can naturally…

We consider models of inflation in supergravity with a shift symmetry. We focus on models with one moduli and one inflaton field. The presence of this symmetry guarantees the existence of a flat direction for the inflaton field. Mildly…

In negatively curved field spaces, inflation can be realised even in steep potentials. Hyperinflation invokes the `centrifugal force' of a field orbiting the hyperbolic plane to sustain inflation. We generalise hyperinflation by showing…

We investigate the possibility that the Universe may inflate due to moduli fields, corresponding to flat directions of supersymmetry, lifted by supergravity corrections. Using a hybrid-type potential we obtain a two-stage inflationary…

We study the dynamics of two-field models of inflation characterized by a hierarchy of masses between curvature and isocurvature modes. When the hierarchy is large, a low energy effective field theory (EFT) exists in which only curvature…

Inflationary models whose vacuum energy arises from a D-term are believed not to suffer from the supergravity eta problem of F-term inflation. That is, D-term models have the desirable property that the inflaton mass can naturally remain…

We consider supersymmetric inflation with the hybrid-type potential. In the absence of the symmetry that forbids Hubble-induced mass terms, the inflaton mass will be as large as the Hubble scale during inflation. We consider gravitational…