Related papers: Moduli Inflation from Dynamical Supersymmetry Brea…
We propose a new mechanism to generate density perturbations in inflationary models. Spatial fluctuations in the decay rate of the inflaton field to ordinary matter lead to fluctuations in the reheating temperature. We argue that in most…
The theory of inflation will be investigated as well as supersymmetry breaking in the context of supergravity, incorporating the target-space duality and the non-perturbative gaugino condensation in the hidden sector. The inflation and…
We review the effects of heavy scalar fields during inflation in the framework of $\mathcal N = 1$ supergravity. Such heavy scalars can be geometric moduli from string compactifications or stabilizer fields from a different sector of the…
We explore some issues in slow roll inflation in situations where field excursions are small compared to $M_p$. We argue that for small field inflation, minimizing fine tuning requires low energy supersymmetry and a tightly constrained…
Supersymmetry breaking in the early universe induces scalar soft potentials with curvature of order the Hubble constant. This has a dramatic effect on the coherent production of scalar fields along flat directions. For the moduli problem it…
We reconsider the Polonyi problem in gravity-mediation models for supersymmetry (SUSY) breaking. It has been argued that there is no problem in the dynamical SUSY breaking scenarios, since the Polonyi field acquires a sufficiently large…
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…
We analyze the behaviour of moduli fields in string effective models between the end of inflation and reheating. The effective moduli potential during this era is derived for a class of simple models. We argue that this potential…
The three-year data from WMAP are in stunning agreement with the simplest possible quadratic potential for chaotic inflation, as well as with new or symmetry-breaking inflation. We investigate the possibilities for incorporating these…
A generic feature of inflationary models in supergravity/string constructions is vacuum misalignment for the moduli fields. The associated production of moduli particles leads to an epoch in the post-inflationary history in which the energy…
The relation between the Hubble constant and the scale of supersymmetry breaking is investigated in models of inflation dominated by a string modulus. Usually in this kind of models the gravitino mass is of the same order of magnitude as…
We study the scalar sector of type IIB superstring theory compactified on Calabi-Yau orientifolds as a place to find a mechanism of inflation in the early universe. In the large volume limit, one can stabilize the moduli in stages using…
We propose an inflationary scenario, M-flation, in which inflation is driven by three $N\times N$ hermitian matrices $\Phi_i, i=1,2,3$. The inflation potential of our model, which is strongly motivated from string theory, is constructed…
Natural inflation relies on the existence of an axion decay constant which is super-Planckian. In string theory only sub-Planckian axion decay constants have been found in any controlled regime. However in field theory it is possible to…
We show that a class of Wess--Zumino models lead to inflation in supersymmetry and supergravity. This is due to the existence of a classically flat direction generic to these models. The pseudomodulus that parametrizes this flat direction…
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 construct a natural inflation model in supergravity where the inflaton is identified with a modulus field possessing a shift symmetry. The superpotential for the inflaton is generated by meson condensation due to strong dynamics with…
The BICEP2 observations, if confirmed, point to a high scale of inflation and large field excursions during the inflationary era. Non-compact string moduli spaces are a suggestive setting for these phenomena. While unlikely to be described…
I study two-stage hybrid inflation driven by moduli fields, corresponding to flat directions of supersymmetry, lifted by supergravity corrections. The first stage corresponds to a period of either fast-roll or `locked' inflation, induced by…
Attempts at building an unified description of the strong, weak and electromagnetic interactions usually involve several stages of spontaneous symmetry breaking. We consider the effects of such symmetry breaking during an era of primordial…