It has been argued that rather generic features of string-inspired inflationary theories with low-energy supersymmetry (SUSY) make it difficult to achieve inflation with a Hubble scale H > m_{3/2}, where m_{3/2} is the gravitino mass in the SUSY-breaking vacuum state. We present a class of string-inspired supergravity realizations of chaotic inflation where a simple, dynamical mechanism yields hierarchically small scales of post-inflationary supersymmetry breaking. Within these toy models we can easily achieve small ratios between m_{3/2} and the Hubble scale of inflation. This is possible because the expectation value of the superpotential <W> relaxes from large to small values during the course of inflation. However, our toy models do not provide a reasonable fit to cosmological data if one sets the SUSY-breaking scale to m_{3/2} < TeV. Our work is a small step towards relieving the apparent tension between high-scale inflation and low-scale supersymmetry breaking in string compactifications.
In this paper we consider a class of inflation models on the brane where the dominant part of the inflaton scalar potential does not depend on the inflaton field value during inflation. In particular, we consider supernatural inflation, its hilltop version, A-term inflation, and supersymmetric (SUSY) D- and F-term hybrid inflation on the brane. We show that the parameter space can be broadened, the inflation scale generally can be lowered, and still possible to have the spectral index $n_s=0.96$.
We study the conditions of restoring supersymmetry (SUSY) after inflation in the supergravity-based cosmological models with a single chiral superfield and a quartic stabilization term in the Kähler potential. Some new, explicit, and viable inflationary models satisfying those conditions are found. The inflaton's scalar superpartner is dynamically stabilized during and after inflation. We also demonstrate a possibility of having small and adjustable SUSY breaking with a tiny cosmological constant.
The discovery of a large tensor-to-scalar ratio by the BICEP2 experiment points to large field excursions during inflation. One framework that predicts large $r$ is monodromy inflation. While discussed mainly in the context of string theory, the phenomenon can be illustrated and studied in the well-understood framework of SUSY QCD with a large number of colors. We discuss the requirements for viable inflation as well as various difficulties for model building, including tunneling, tuning, and the species problem.
We explore the novel possibility that the inflaton responsible for cosmological inflation is a gauge non-singlet in supersymmetric (SUSY) Grand Unified Theories (GUTs). For definiteness we consider SUSY hybrid inflation where we show that the scalar components of gauge non-singlet superfields, together with fields in conjugate representations, may form a D-flat direction suitable for inflation. We apply these ideas to SUSY models with an Abelian gauge group, a Pati-Salam gauge group and finally Grand Unified Theories based on SO(10) where the scalar components of the matter superfields in the …
The Hubble parameter during the inflationary era must be smaller than the gravitino mass if the moduli are stabilized by the Kachru-Kallosh-Linde-Trivedi mechanism. This condition represents the difficulty to combine the low scale SUSY breaking and the high scale inflation. We propose a simple mechanism which can naturally separate the inflation scale from the SUSY breaking scale today.
We propose a general scenario for moduli stabilization where low-energy supersymmetry can be accommodated with a high scale of inflation. The key ingredient is that the stabilization of the modulus field during and after inflation is not associated with a single, common scale, but relies on two different mechanisms. We illustrate this general scenario in a simple example, where during inflation the modulus is stabilized with a large mass by a Kahler potential coupling to the field which provides the inflationary vacuum energy via its F-term. After inflation, the modulus is stabilized, for inst…
In this paper, we consider high scale (100 TeV) supersymmetry (SUSY) breaking and realize the idea of hilltop supernatural inflation in concrete particle physics models based on flipped-SU(5) and Pati-Salam models in the framework of supersymmetric grand unified theories (SUSY GUTs). The inflaton can be a flat direction including right-handed sneutrino and the waterfall field is a GUT Higgs. The spectral index is $n_s=0.96$ which fits very well with recent data by PLANCK satellite. There is no both thermal and non-thermal gravitino problems. Non-thermal leptogenesis can be resulted from the de…
We review the realization of Starobinsky-type inflation within induced-gravity Supersymmetric (SUSY) and non-SUSY models. In both cases, inflation is in agreement with the current data and can be attained for subplanckian values of the inflaton. The corresponding effective theories retain perturbative unitarity up to the Planck scale and the inflaton mass is predicted to be 3x10^13 GeV. The supergravity embedding of these models is achieved by employing two gauge singlet chiral supefields, a superpotential that is uniquely determined by a continuous R and a discrete Zn symmetry, and several (s…
Spontaneously broken supersymmetry (SUSY) and a vanishingly small cosmological constant imply that R symmetry must be spontaneously broken at low energies. Based on this observation, we suppose that, in the sector responsible for low-energy R symmetry breaking, a discrete R symmetry remains preserved at high energies and only becomes dynamically broken at relatively late times in the cosmological evolution, i.e., after the dynamical breaking of SUSY. Prior to R symmetry breaking, the Universe is then bound to be in a quasi-de Sitter phase---which offers a dynamical explanation for the occurren…
We consider a broad class of inflationary models of two unconstrained chiral superfields, the stabilizer $S$ and the inflaton $Φ$, which can describe inflationary models with nearly arbitrary potentials. These models include, in particular, the recently introduced theories of cosmological attractors, which provide an excellent fit to the latest Planck data. We show that by adding to the superpotential of the fields $S$ and $Φ$ a small term depending on a nilpotent chiral superfield $P$ one can break SUSY and introduce a small cosmological constant without affecting main predictions of the orig…
We show how general initial conditions for small field inflation can be obtained in multi-field models. This is provided by non-linear angular friction terms in the inflaton that provide a phase of non-slow-roll inflation before the slow-roll inflation phase. This in turn provides a natural mechanism to star small-field slow-roll at nearly zero velocity for arbitrary initial conditions. We also show that there is a relation between the scale of SUSY breaking sqrt (f) and the amount of non-gaussian fluctuations generated by the inflaton. In particular, we show that in the local non-gaussian sha…
The large tensor spectrum recently observed by the BICEP2 Collaboration requires a super-Planckian field variation of the inflaton in the single-field inflationary scenario. The required slow-roll parameter ε\approx 0.01 would restrict the e-folding number to around 7 in (sub-)Planckian inflationary models. To overcome such problems, we consider a two-field scenario based on the natural assisted supersymmetric (SUSY) hybrid model ("natural SUSY hybrid inflation" [1]), which combines the SUSY hybrid and the natural inflation models. The axionic inflaton field from the natural inflation sector c…
Split supersymmetry (SUSY) -- in which SUSY is relevant to our universe but largely inaccessible at current accelerators -- has become increasingly plausible given the absence of new physics at the LHC, the success of gauge coupling unification, and the observed Higgs mass. Indirect probes of split SUSY such as electric dipole moments (EDMs) and flavor violation offer hope for further evidence but are ultimately limited in their reach. Inflation offers an alternate window into SUSY through the direct production of superpartners during inflation. These particles are capable of leaving imprints …
We propose a limited class of models, describing interacting chiral multiplets with a non-minimal coupling to a vector multiplet, in curved superspace of $N=1$ supergravity. Those models are suitable for the inflationary model building in supergravity with inflaton assigned to a massive vector multiplet and spontaneous SUSY breaking in Minkowski vacuum after inflation, for any values of the inflationary parameters $n_s$ and $r$, and any scale of SUSY breaking.
We discuss how the inflation induced supersymmetry breaking affects the flat directions of SUSY vacua. We show that under general assumptions all gauge nonsinglet fields, parameterizing flat directions (and in particular squarks and sleptons), get large $radiative$ masses which are related to the value of the Hubble constant ($H$) and to the expectation value of the inflaton field. This mass (typically $\sim H$) is of ``non-gravitational'' origin and does not vanishes in the global SUSY limit. Large radiative corrections are induced by $F$-term (or $D$-term) density, which dominates the inflat…
Thermal inflation usually requires an inflationary potential with nonrenormalizable operators (NROs). We demonstrate how O'Raifeartaigh models with or without NROs can provide thermal inflation and a solution to the moduli problem, as well as provide SUSY breaking. We then discuss a scenario where generalized O'Raifeartaigh potentials (with NROs) are included in a SUGRA where the supergravity and O'Raifeartaigh potentials provide negative and a positive contributions to the cosmological constant respectively. Tuning these contributions to nearly cancel can provide the present value of the dark…
We consider the basic supersymmetric (SUSY) models of F-term hybrid inflation (FHI). We show that a simple class of Kaehler potentials ensures a resolution to the ηproblem and allows for inflation of hilltop type. As a consequence, observationally acceptable values for the spectral index, ns, can be achieved constraining the coefficient c4k of the quartic supergravity correction to the inflationary potential. For about the central value of ns, in the case of standard FHI, the grand unification (GUT) scale turns out to be well below its SUSY value with the relevant coupling constant κin the ran…
Combination of Plank and BICEP2 data reported that tensor to scalar ratio $r\simeq 0.16$ and scalar spectral index $n_{s}\simeq 0.96$. In this short note, it is shown that chaotic inflation with quadratic potential, which perfectly accounts for present fit to $r$ and $n_s$, and relatively heavy Higgs mass for fine-tuned MSSM, are both suggested to be consequences of high-scale supersymmetry (SUSY) breaking. Following this idea, we find that inflaton mass is of same order as soft mass, flatness of inflation potential doesn't need a shift symmetry, and scale of inflation energy density automatic…
We consider the supersymmetry breaking effects on typical inflation models with different types of Kähler potential. The critical size of supersymmetry-breaking scale, above which the flatness of the inflaton potential is spoiled, drastically changes model by model. We present the universal description of such effects in terms of a field-dependent scaling factor by which gravity-mediated supersymmetry breaking terms are suppressed or enhanced, based on the conformal supergravity framework. Such a description would be useful when we estimate them in constructing supersymmetric models of particl…
We argue that in the simplest version of the KKLT model, the maximal value of the Hubble constant during inflation cannot exceed the present value of the gravitino mass, H< m_{3/2}. This may have important implications for string cosmology and for the scale of the SUSY breaking in this model. If one wants to have inflation on high energy scale, one must develop phenomenological models with an extremely large gravitino mass. On the other hand, if one insists that the gravitino mass should be O(1 TeV), one will need to develop models with a very low scale of inflation. We show, however, that one…
We present a model of inflation based on the anomaly-induced effective action of gravity in the presence of a conformally invariant Hilbert-Einstein term. Our approach is based on the conformal representation of the fields action and on the integration of the corresponding conformal anomaly. In contradistinction to the original Starobinsky's model, inflation can be stable at the beginning and unstable at the end. The instability is caused by a slowing down of inflation due to quantum effects associated to the massive fermion fields. In supersymmetric theories this mechanism can be linked to th…
It has recently been pointed out that a substantial amount of e-folds can occur during the waterfall regime of hybrid inflation. Moreover, Kodama et.al. have derived analytic approximations for the trajectories of the inflaton and of the waterfall fields. Based on these, we derive here the consequences for F- and D-term SUSY hybrid inflation: A substantial amount of e-folds may occur in the waterfall regime, provided kappa << M^2/M_P^2, where kappa is the superpotential coupling, M the scale of symmetry breaking and M_P the reduced Planck mass. When this condition is amply fulfilled, a number …
We propose the "supersymmetric (SUSY) Yukawa sum rule", a relationship between physical masses and mixing angles of the third-generation quarks and squarks. The sum rule follows directly from a relation between quark and squark couplings to the Higgs, enforced by SUSY. It is exactly this relation that ensures the cancellation of the one-loop quadratic divergence in the Higgs mass from the top sector. Testing the sum rule experimentally would thus provide a powerful consistency check on SUSY as the solution to the gauge hierarchy problem. While such a test will most likely have to await a futur…
We propose a realization of inverted hybrid inflation scenario in the context of n=2 supersymmetric quantum cosmology. The spectrum of density fluctuations is calculated in the de Sitter regimen as a function of the gravitino and the Planck mass, and explicit forms for the wave function of the universe are found in the WKB regimen for a FRW closed and flat universes.
We propose a novel model of the modified (Starobinsky-like) old-minimal-type supergravity coupled to a chiral matter superfield, that can {\it simultaneously} describe multi-field inflation, primordial black hole (PBH) formation, dark matter (DM), and spontaneous supersymmetry (SUSY) breaking after inflation in a Minkowski vacuum. The PBH masses in our supergravity model of double slow-roll inflation, with a short phase of "ultra-slow-roll" between two slow-roll phases, are close to $10^{18}$ g. We find that a significant PBH fraction in the allowed mass window can be supplemented by spontaneo…
We propose the unified models of cosmological inflation, spontaneous SUSY breaking, and the dark energy (de Sitter vacuum) in $N=1$ supergravity with the dilaton-axion chiral superfield $T$ in the presence of an $N=1$ vector multiplet with the alternative Fayet-Iliopoulos term. By using the Kähler potential as $K=-α\log(T+\bar{T})$ and the superpotential as a sum of a constant and a linear term, we find that viable inflation is possible for $3\leqα\leqα_{\rm max}$ where $α_{\rm max}\approx 7.235$. Observations of the amplitude of primordial scalar perturbations fix the SUSY breaking scale in o…
We examine the supersymmetry phenomenology of a novel scenario of supersymmetry (SUSY) breaking which we call Gaugino Anomaly Mediation, or inoAMSB. This is suggested by recent work on the phenomenology of flux compactified type IIB string theory. The essential features of this scenario are that the gaugino masses are of the anomaly-mediated SUSY breaking (AMSB) form, while scalar and trilinear soft SUSY breaking terms are highly suppressed. Renormalization group effects yield an allowable sparticle mass spectrum, while at the same time avoiding charged LSPs; the latter are common in models wi…
Moduli fields, which parameterize perturbative flat directions of the potential in supersymmetric theories, are natural candidates to act as inflatons. An inflationary potential on moduli space can result if the scale of dynamical SUSY breaking in some sector of the theory is determined by a moduli dependent coupling. The magnitude of density fluctuations generated during inflation then depends on the scale of SUSY breaking in this sector. This can naturally be hierarchically smaller than the Planck scale in a dynamical model, giving small fluctuations without any fine tuning of parameters. It…
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 the Hubble constant which is not desirable from the phenomenological point of view. It is shown that slow-roll saddle point inflation may be compatible with a low scale of supersymmetry breaking only if some corrections to the lowest order Kahler potential are taken into account. However, choosing an appropriate Kahler potential is not enough. There are also c…
We study cosmic string formation within supersymmetric grand unified theories. We consider gauge groups having a rank between 4 and 8. We examine all possible spontaneous symmetry breaking patterns from the GUT down to the standard model gauge group. Assuming standard hybrid inflation, we select all the models which can solve the GUT monopole problem, lead to baryogenesis after inflation and are consistent with proton lifetime measurements. We conclude that in all acceptable spontaneous symmetry breaking schemes, cosmic string formation is unavoidable. The strings which form at the end of infl…
It is shown that two classes of racetrack inflation models, saddle point and inflection point ones, can be constructed in a fully supersymmetric framework with the matter field F-term as a source of supersymmetry (SUSY) breaking and uplifting. Two models of F-term SUSY breaking are considered: the Polonyi model and the quantum corrected O'Raifeartaigh model. In the former case, both classes of racetrack inflation models differ significantly from the corresponding models with non-SUSY uplifting. The main difference is a quite strong dominance of the inflaton by the matter field. In addition, fi…
