10 research outputs found
A-term inflation and the MSSM
The parameter space for A-term inflation is explored with . With p=6 and \lambda_p~1, the observed spectrum and
spectral tilt can be obtained with soft mass of order 10^2 GeV but not with a
much higher mass. The case p=3 requires \lambda_p~10^{-9} to 10^{-12}. The
ratio m/A requires fine-tuning, which may be justified on environmental
grounds. An extension of the MSSM to include non-renormalizable terms and/or
Dirac neutrino masses might support either A-term inflation or modular
inflation.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures; Comments added, typos correcte
Curvaton Dynamics in Brane-worlds
We study the curvaton dynamics in brane-world cosmologies. Assuming that the
inflaton field survives without decay after the end of inflation, we apply the
curvaton reheating mechanism to Randall-Sundrum and to its curvature
corrections: Gauss-Bonnet, induced gravity and combined Gauss-Bonnet and
induced gravity cosmological models. In the case of chaotic inflation and
requiring suppression of possible short-wavelength generated gravitational
waves, we constraint the parameters of a successful curvaton brane-world
cosmological model. If density perturbations are also generated by the curvaton
field then, the fundamental five-dimensional mass could be much lower than the
Planck massComment: 47 pages, 1 figure, references added, to be published in JCA
Towards an Explicit Model of D-brane Inflation
We present a detailed analysis of an explicit model of warped D-brane
inflation, incorporating the effects of moduli stabilization. We consider the
potential for D3-brane motion in a warped conifold background that includes
fluxes and holomorphically-embedded D7-branes involved in moduli stabilization.
Although the D7-branes significantly modify the inflaton potential, they do not
correct the quadratic term in the potential, and hence do not cause a uniform
change in the slow-roll parameter eta. Nevertheless, we present a simple
example based on the Kuperstein embedding of D7-branes, z_1=constant, in which
the potential can be fine-tuned to be sufficiently flat for inflation. To
derive this result, it is essential to incorporate the fact that the
compactification volume changes slightly as the D3-brane moves. We stress that
the compactification geometry dictates certain relationships among the
parameters in the inflaton Lagrangian, and these microscopic constraints impose
severe restrictions on the space of possible models. We note that the shape of
the final inflaton potential differs from projections given in earlier studies:
in configurations where inflation occurs, it does so near an inflection point.
Finally, we comment on the difficulty of making precise cosmological
predictions in this scenario. This is the companion paper to arXiv:0705.3837.Comment: 68 pages, 6 figures; v2: fixed typos, added refs and clarifications;
v3: expanded discussion of inflection point inflatio
Accidental Inflation in String Theory
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
slow-rolling down from a flat hill-top or inflection point of the scalar
potential. This situation can be quite generic in the landscape, where by
uplifting one of the two adjacent minima one can turn the barrier either to a
flat saddle point or to an inflection point supporting eternal inflation. The
resulting spectral index is tunable in the range of 0.93 < n_s < 1, and there
is only negligible production of primordial gravitational waves r < 10^{-6}.
The flatness of the potential in this scenario requires fine-tuning, which may
be justified taking into account the exponential reward by volume factors
preferring the regions of the universe with the maximal amount of slow-roll
inflation. This consideration leads to a tentative prediction of the spectral
index or depending on whether the
potential has a symmetry phi -> - phi or not.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures, LaTeX, uses RevTex
Curvaton reheating allows a TeV Hubble scale in non-oscillatory inflation.
Curvaton reheating is studied in non-oscillatory models of inflation, with the aim of obtaining bounds on the parameters of curvaton models and finding out whether low scale inflation can be attained. Using a minimal curvaton model, it is found that the allowed parameter space is considerably larger than in the case of the usual oscillatory inflation models. In particular, inflation with a Hubble scale as low as 1 TeV is comfortably allowed
Inflationary buildup of a vector field condensate and its cosmological consequences
Light vector fields during inflation obtain a superhorizon perturbation spectrum when their conformal invariance is appropriately broken. Such perturbations, by means of some suitable mechanism (e.g. the vector curvaton mechanism), can contribute to the curvature perturbation in the Universe and produce characteristic signals, such as statistical anisotropy, on the microwave sky, most recently surveyed by the Planck satellite mission. The magnitude of such characteristic features crucially depends on the magnitude of the vector condensate generated during inflation. However, in the vast majority of the literature the expectation value of this condensate has so-far been taken as a free parameter, lacking a definite prediction or a physically motivated estimate. In this paper, we study the stochastic evolution of the vector condensate and obtain an estimate for its magnitude. Our study is mainly focused in the supergravity inspired case when the kinetic function and mass of the vector boson is time-varying during inflation, but other cases are also explored such as a parity violating axial theory or a non-minimal coupling between the vector field and gravity. As an example, we apply our findings in the context of the vector curvaton mechanism and contrast our results with current observations