Natural chain inflation

DOI10.1016/J.PHYSLETB.2022.137081MaRDI QIDQ2140678zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Katherine Freese, Aliki Litsa, Martin Wolfgang Winkler

Publication date 23 May 2022

Published in Physics Letters B (Search for Journal in Brave)

Copyright license Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/2109.11556

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Applications of vector bundles and moduli spaces in mathematical physics (twistor theory, instantons, quantum field theory) (14D21) Tunneling in quantum theory (81U26) Quantum optics (81V80) Geometrodynamics and the holographic principle (83E05) String and superstring theories in gravitational theory (83E30) Supergravity (83E50) Relativistic cosmology (83F05)

Abstract: In Chain Inflation the universe tunnels along a series of false vacua of ever-decreasing energy. The main goal of this paper is to embed Chain Inflation in high energy fundamental physics. We begin by illustrating a simple effective formalism for calculating Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) observables in Chain Inflation. Density perturbations seeding the anisotropies emerge from the probabilistic nature of tunneling (rather than from quantum fluctuations of the inflation). To obtain the correct normalization of the scalar power spectrum and the scalar spectral index, we find an upper limit on the scale of inflation at horizon crossing of CMB scales, $V_{\ast }^{1/4}<10^{12}$~GeV. We then provide an explicit realization of chain inflation, in which the inflaton is identified with an axion in supergravity. The axion enjoys a perturbative shift symmetry which is broken to a discrete remnant by instantons. The model, which we dub `natural chain inflation' satisfies all cosmological constraints and can be embedded into a standard $Lambda$CDM cosmology. Our work provides a major step towards the ultraviolet completion of chain inflation in string theory.

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Cites work

• Cosmology with nilpotent superfields
• Fencing in the swampland: quantum gravity constraints on large field inflation
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• Modulated natural inflation
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• On the de Sitter swampland criterion
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Cited in

(7)

• Spiral inflation
• Natural inflation with hidden scale invariance
• The inflation point in \(\mathrm{U}(1)_{\mathrm{de}}\) hilltop potential assisted by chaoton, BICEP2 data, and trans-Planckian decay constant
• Modulated natural inflation
• Expectations for inflationary observables: simple or natural?
• Higgs inflation and the electroweak gauge sector
• Perturbations in chromo-natural inflation

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