Related papers: Inflating with the QCD Axion
We propose a method to extract predictions from quantum cosmology for inflation that can be confronted with observations. Employing the tunneling boundary condition in quantum geometrodynamics, we derive a probability distribution for the…
Thermal inflation driven by a scalar field called "flaton" is a possible scenario to solve the cosmological moduli problem. We study a model of thermal inflation with a flaton chemical potential. In the presence of the chemical potential, a…
It is known for some time that the cosmological bound on the invisible axion scale can be avoided by an early phase of strong QCD. While most approaches rely on theories where the strong coupling constant is determined through the…
The scale at which supersymmetry is broken and the mechanism by which supersymmetry breaking is fed down to the observable sector has rich implications on the way Nature may have chosen to accomplish inflation. We discuss a simple model for…
We have found a successful model of chaotic inflation with an inflaton coupled nonminimally with gravity. The nonminimal coupling constant $\xi$ runs with the evolution of the inflaton. The running nature of the coupling leads naturally to…
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…
The QCD axion is the leading solution to the strong-CP problem, a dark matter candidate, and a possible result of string theory compactifications. However, for axions produced before inflation, symmetry-breaking scales of $f_a \gtrsim…
The aim of this chapter is to explain in clear and pedagogical terms how some particle-physics models and/or mechanisms can naturally lead to inflation and how this can provide testable predictions that can help us find new physics effects.…
In order to accommodate the QCD axion as the dark matter (DM) in a model in which the Peccei-Quinn (PQ) symmetry is broken before the end of inflation, a relatively low scale of inflation has to be invoked in order to avoid bounds from DM…
The evolution of a scalar field is explored taking into account the presence of a background fluid in a positively curved Universe in the framework of loop quantum cosmology. Though the mechanism that provides the initial conditions for…
A safe way to reheat the universe, in models of natural and quadratic inflation, is through shift symmetric couplings between the inflaton $\phi$ and the Standard Model (SM), since they do not generate loop corrections to the potential…
Inflation may occur while rolling into the metastable supersymmetry-breaking vacuum of massive supersymmetric QCD. We explore the range of parameters in which slow-roll inflation and long-lived metastable supersymmetry breaking may be…
Recent investigations have shown that inflation can be driven by four-dimensional strongly interacting theories non-minimally coupled to gravity. We explore this paradigm further by considering composite inflation driven by orientifold…
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…
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…
In this work, we study field theoretic systems of a single axion-like field with linear potentials modulated by cosine terms, allegedly induced by non-perturbative instanton configurations. These systems are considered in expanding-Universe…
In the so-called natural inflation, an axion-like inflaton is assumed to have a cosine-type periodic potential. This is not the case in a very simple model in which the axion-like inflaton is coupled to an SU(N) (or other) pure Yang-Mills,…
A model of generalised hybrid inflation in a supersymmetric QCD theory is proposed whose parameters are the gauge coupling and quark masses. Its gravitational coupling to another SQCD sector induces a metastable supersymmetry breaking…
We study an inflationary model developed by Kaloper and Sorbo, in which the inflaton is an axion with a sub-Planckian decay constant, whose potential is generated by mixing with a topological 4-form field strength. This gives a 4d…
A unified dynamical model of dark energy and inflation is presented, in which both phenomena are driven by axion-like fields-quintessences-of spontaneously broken global $U(1)_A$'s symmetries whose potentials are induced by instantons of…