We consider an inflection point inflationary model in supergravity with a single chiral superfield and show that the predicted values of the scalar spectral index and tensor-to-scalar ratio are consistent with the Planck 2015 results. In this model supersymmetry is strongly broken after inflation, which results in a non-SUSY de-Sitter vacuum responsible for the recent accelerated expansion of the Universe.
We consider models of inflection point inflation. The main drawback of such models is that they suffer from the overshoot problem. Namely the initial condition should be fine tuned to be near the inflection point for the universe to inflate. We show that stringy realizations of inflection point inflation are common and offer a natural resolution to the overshoot problem.
The NANOGrav collaboration has published a suspected stochastic GW background signal in its analysis of 12.5 years PTA data, so in this work, we investigate the possibility to explain the signal by the inflationary models with double-inflection-point. We calculate the energy spectrum of GWs induced by scalar perturbations, and show that the curve lies in the $2σ$ region of the NANOGrav constraints. In addition, we analyze the reheating process and dark matter production by assuming that the inflaton is coupled with the SM Higgs boson and singlet fermionic dark matter field. We discuss the radi…
Motivated by the recently proposed Trans-Planckian Censorship Conjecture (TCC), we propose a gauged $B-L$ model of inflection-point inflation with axion dark matter. The Hubble scale during inflation ($H_{\rm inf}$) satisfies the TCC bound of $H_{\rm inf} \lesssim 1$ GeV, the axion dark matter scenario is free from the axion domain wall and isocurvature problems, and the axion decay constant can be larger than $10^{12}$ GeV. The seesaw mechanism is automatically incorporated in the model and the observed baryon asymmetry of the universe can be reproduced via resonant leptogenesis.
Many models of high energy physics possess metastable vacua. It is conceivable that the universe can get trapped in such a false vacuum, irrespective of its origin and prior history, at an earlier stage during its evolution. The ensuing false vacuum inflation results in a cold and empty universe and has a generic graceful exit problem. We show that an inflection point inflation along the flat directions of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) can resolve this graceful exit problem by inflating the bubble which nucleate out of a false vacuum. The important point is that the initial …
In this article we provide a new closed relationship between cosmic abundance of primordial gravitational waves and primordial blackholes originated from initial inflationary perturbations for inflection-point models of inflation where inflation occurs below the Planck scale. The current Planck constraint on tensor-to-scalar ratio, running of the spectral tilt, and from the abundance of dark matter content in the universe, we can deduce a strict bound on the current abundance of primordial blackholes to be within a range, $9.99712\times 10^{-3}<Ω_{PBH}h^{2}<9.99736\times 10^{-3}$.
We propose to address the fine tuning problem of inflection point inflation by the addition of extra vacuum energy that is present during inflation but disappears afterwards. We show that in such a case, the required amount of fine tuning is greatly reduced. We suggest that the extra vacuum energy can be associated with an earlier phase transition and provide a simple model, based on extending the SM gauge group to SU(3)_C \times SU(2)_L\times U(1)_Y\times U(1)_{B-L}, where the Higgs field of U(1)_{B-L} is in a false vacuum during inflation. In this case, there is virtually no fine tuning of t…
We study the generation of primordial black holes (PBH) in a single field inflection point model of inflation wherein the effective potential is expanded up to the sextic order and the inversion symmetry is imposed such that only even powers are retained in the potential. Such a potential allows the existence of an inflection point which leads to a dynamical phase of ultra slow roll evolution, thereby causing an enhancement of the primordial perturbation spectrum at smaller scales. Working with a quasi-inflection point in the potential, we find that PBHs can be produced in our scenario in the …
Inflection point inflation generically includes a deviation from slow-roll when the inflaton approaches the inflection point. Such deviations are shown to be generated by transitions between singular trajectories. The effects on the power spectrum are studied within the context of universality classes for small-field models. These effects are shown to scale with universality parameters, and can explain the anomalously low power at large scales observed in the CMB. The reduction of power is related to the inflection point's basin of attraction. Implications for the likelihood of inflation are d…
Motivated by machine learning, we introduce a novel method for randomly generating inflationary potentials. Namely, we treat the Taylor coefficients of the potential as weights in a single-layer neural network and use gradient ascent to maximize the number of e-folds of inflation. Inflationary potentials "learned" in this way develop a critical point, which is typically a local maximum but may also be an inflection point. We study the phenomenology of the models along the gradient ascent trajectory, finding substantial agreement with experiment for large-field local maximum models and small-fi…
We revisit the D-term inflation and amend it with ghost-free higher derivative couplings of chiral superfields to super-curvature. These couplings realize a more generic inflationary phase in supergravity. After pointing out that a consistent embedding of these specific higher derivatives is known to exist only in the new-minimal supergravity, we show how a potential for the scalar component may arise due to a Fayet-Iliopoulos D-term. We then turn to inflationary cosmology and explicitly discuss different types of potentials, which capture properties of the common scenarios. These models thank…
Several models of inflection point inflation with the volume modulus as the inflaton are investigated. Non-perturbative superpotentials containing two gaugino condensation terms or one such term with threshold corrections are considered. It is shown that the gravitino mass may be much smaller than the Hubble scale during inflation if at least one of the non-perturbative terms has a positive exponent. Higher order corrections to the Kahler potential have to be taken into account in such models. Those corrections are used to stabilize the potential in the axion direction in the vicinity of the i…
We show that a single uncharged chiral superfield, canonically coupled to \mbox{$N=1$} supergravity with vanishing superpotential, naturally drives inflation in the early universe for a class of simple Kahler potentials. Inflation occurs due to the one-loop generation of a Kahler anomaly proportional to $\R^2$. The coefficient of this $\R^2$ term is of the correct magnitude to describe all aspects of an inflationary cosmology, including sufficient amplitude perturbations and reheating. Higher order terms proportional to $\R^n$ for $n \geq 3$ are naturally suppressed relative to the $\R^2$ term…
An N=1 Poincare supergravity action, suitable for describing the Starobinsky inflation, is proposed. It extends f(R) gravity to supergravity in its old-minimal version. The action is parametrized by a single holomorphic potential and a single non-holomorphic potential, and can be dualized into the standard matter-coupled supergravity action, with the "matter" given by two chiral superfields. The action extends the earlier proposals for embedding the Starobinsky inflation into supergravity, and can be further generalized to include quantum corrections to the inflation. Our approach assumes the …
We study a supergravity model of inflation with R-symmetry and a single scalar field, the inflaton, slowly rolling away from the origin. The scales of inflation can be as low as the supersymmetry breaking scale of 10^10 GeV or even the electroweak scale of 10^3 GeV which could be relevant in the context of theories with submillimiter dimensions. Exact analytical solutions are presented and a comparison with related models is given.
Fermionic terms in a class of locally supersymmetric theories called "liberated supergravity" are nonrenormalizable interactions proportional to inverse powers of the supersymmetry breaking scale and Planck mass. This property defines an intrinsic cutoff for liberated supergravities, which are therefore effective theories valid only below energies that never exceed the cutoff. Requiring that the cutoff exceeds current theoretical and observational bounds shows that the new scalar potential terms allowed by liberated supergravity can neither change the cosmological constant predicted by supergr…
Supergravity, a locally supersymmetric gauge theory, may provide to describe new physics beyond the Standard Model (BSM). In this sense, cosmological applications of supergravity can be the arena for probing outcomes of supergravity. It is also attractive that supergravity can appear as a low-energy effective theory of superstrings, a possible candidate of quantum gravity. Nevertheless, it is not trivial to build inflationary models in supergravity due to difficulties arising mainly from the extremely constrained form of supergravity scalar potentials, complicated structure of interaction term…
Recently, it has been claimed that inflationary models with an inflection point in the scalar potential can produce a large resonance in the power spectrum of curvature perturbation. In this paper however we show that the previous analyses are incorrect. The reason is twofold: firstly, the inflaton is over-shot from a stage of standard inflation and so deviates from the slow-roll attractor before reaching the inflection. Secondly, on the (or close to) the inflection point, the ultra-slow-roll trajectory supersede the slow-roll one and thus, the slow-roll approximations used in the literature c…
We investigate slow-roll inflation in a multi-field random Gaussian landscape. The landscape is assumed to be small-field, with a correlation length much smaller than the Planck scale. Inflation then typically occurs in small patches of the landscape, localized near inflection or saddle points. We find that the inflationary track is typically close to a straight line in the field space, and the statistical properties of inflation are similar to those in a one-dimensional landscape. This picture of multi-field inflation is rather different from that suggested by the Dyson Brownian motion model;…
Studies of the initial conditions for inflation have conflicting predictions from exponential suppression to inevitability. At the level of phase space, this conflict arises from the competing intuitions of CPT invariance and thermodynamics. After reviewing this conflict, we enlarge the ensemble beyond phase space to include scalar potential data. We show how this leads to an important contribution from inflection point inflation, enhancing the likelihood of inflation to an inverse cubic power law. In the process, we emphasize the attractor dynamics of the gravity-scalar system and the existen…
Starobinsky inflation and Higgs inflation in gravity, and their equivalence based on the common inflationary potential are extended to supergravity in the proper framework, where the Starobinsky and Higgs descriptions of inflation arise in two different gauges of the same supergravity model.
In this article we motivate and review the embedding of the gravitationally enhanced friction mechanism in supergravity. The very interesting feature is that inflationary models which utilize this mechanism drive inflation for a wider range of parameter values and predict lower values for the tensor-to-scalar ratio.
We embed general $f(R)$ inflationary models in minimal supergravity plus matter, a single chiral superfield $Φ$, with or without another superfield $S$, via a Jordan frame Einstein+scalar description. In particular, inflationary models like a generalized Starobinsky one are analyzed and constraints on them are found. We also embed the related models of conformal inflation, also described as Jordan frame Einstein+scalar models, in particular the conformal inflation from the Higgs model, and analyze the inflationary constraints on them.
We study the cosmological evolution of a N = 1 supergravity model, dual to a higher derivative supergravity model coupled to scalar fields so that in the Einstein frame the model is ghost free. We find that this model admit slow roll inflationary solutions showing essentially two-field inflation. The cosmological parameters calculated for this model lie in acceptable range with corrections of the order lnN/N, N being the number of e-foldings, compared to the Starobinsky inflation model.
Even though the chaotic inflation is one of the most popular inflation models for its simple dynamics and compelling resolutions to the initial condition problems, its realization in supergravity has been considered a challenging task. We discuss how the chaotic inflation dominated by the D-term can be induced in supergravity, which would give a new perspective on the inflation model building in supergravity.
We propose a new class of inflation models in supergravity with higher derivative terms. In those models, the Kähler potential does not contain the inflaton multiplet, but a supersymmetric derivative term does. In the models, inflation is effectively driven by a single scalar field with a standard kinetic term and a scalar potential. Remarkably, the so-called $η$ problem does not exist in our models.
The bosonic f(R) gravity function is derived from a chiral F(R) supergravity model for the first time. We find an existence of the upper limit (or AdS bound) on the scalar curvature, as well as a solution with a vanishing cosmological constant. We compare our simple model of F(R) supergravity to the well known Starobinsky model of chaotic inflation.
We present supergravity realizations of chromo-natural inflationary models. We show that by using superpotentials with "imaginary" holomorphic functions of the inflaton one can obtain effective theories of inflation that are also consistent truncations of the original supergravity models.
We consider the inflationary scenario with non-minimal coupling in 4D Jordan frame supergravity. We find that there occurs a tachyonic instability along the direction of the accompanying non-inflaton field in generic Jordan frame supergravity models. We propose a higher order correction to the Jordan frame function for solving the tachyonic mass problem and show that the necessary correction can be naturally generated by the heavy thresholds without spoiling the slow-roll conditions. We discuss the implication of the result on the Higgs inflation in NMSSM.
In this review, we discuss inflation models based on supergravity. After explaining the difficulties in realizing inflation in the context of supergravity, we show how to evade such difficulties. Depending on types of inflation, we give concrete examples, particularly paying attention to chaotic inflation because the ongoing experiments like Planck might detect the tensor perturbations in near future. We also discuss inflation models in Jordan frame supergravity, motivated by Higgs inflation.
We consider "new inflation" inflationary models at small fields, embedded in minimal ${\cal N}=1$ supergravity with a single chiral superfield. Imposing a period of inflation compatible with experiment severely restricts possible models, classified in perturbation theory. If moreover we impose that the field goes to large values and very small potential at the current time, like would be needed for instance for the inflaton being the volume modulus in large extra dimensional scenarios, the possible models are restricted to very contrived superpotentials.
In the new-minimal supergravity formulation we present the embedding of the $R+R^2$ Starobinsky model of inflation. Starting from the superspace action we perform the projection to component fields and identify the Starobinsky model in the bosonic sector. Since there exist no other scalar fields, this is by construction a single field model. This higher curvature supergravity also gives rise to a propagating massive vector. Finally we comment on the issues of higher order corrections and initial conditions.
We analyze the cosmological consequences of locked inflation, a model recently proposed by Dvali and Kachru that can produce significant amounts of inflation without requiring slow-roll. We pay particular attention to the end of inflation in this model, showing that a secondary phase of saddle inflation can follow the locked inflationary era. However, this subsequent period of inflation results in a strongly scale dependent spectrum that can lead to massive black hole formation in the primordial universe. Avoiding this disastrous outcome puts strong constraints on the parameter space open to m…
In string-inspired supergravity theory, Kähler metric of chiral matter fields often has a pole. Such Kähler metric is interesting from the viewpoint of the framework of the pole inflation, where the scalar potential can be stretched out to be flat around the pole for a canonically normalized field and inflation can be realized. However, when Kähler metric has a pole, the scalar potential can also have a pole at the same point in supergravity theory. We study such supergravity models with the pole, and provide numerical analysis of inflationary dynamics and resultant density perturbation. In co…
We describe methods for building "semi-realistic" models of F-term inflation. By semi-realistic we mean that they are built in, and obey the requirements of, "semi-realistic" particle physics models. The particle physics models are taken to be effective supergravity theories derived from orbifold compactifications of string theory, and their requirements are taken to be modular invariance, absence of mass terms and stabilization of moduli. We review the particle physics models, their requirements and tools and methods for building inflation models.
We study various inflation models in the Jordan frame supergravity with a logarithmic Kahler potential. We find that, in a class of inflation models containing an additional singlet in the superpotential, three types of inflation can be realized: the Higgs-type inflation, power-law inflation, and chaotic inflation with/without a running kinetic term. The former two are possible if the holomorphic function dominates over the non-holomorphic one in the frame function, while the chaotic inflation occurs when both are comparable. Interestingly, the fractional-power potential can be realized by the…
We consider the robustness of small-field inflation in the presence of scalar field inhomogeneities. Previous numerical work has shown that if the scalar potential is flat only over a narrow interval, such as in commonly considered inflection-point models, even small-amplitude inhomogeneities present at the would-be onset of inflation at $τ= τ_i$ can disrupt the accelerated expansion. In this paper, we parametrise and evolve the inhomogeneities from an earlier time $τ_{IC}$ at which the initial data were imprinted, and show that for a broad range of inflationary and pre-inflationary models, in…
The generic embedding of the $R+R^2$ higher curvature theory into old-minimal supergravity leads to models with rich vacuum structure in addition to its well-known inflationary properties. When the model enjoys an exact R-symmetry, there is an inflationary phase with a single supersymmetric Minkowski vacuum. This appears to be a special case of a more generic set-up, which in principle may include R-symmetry violating terms which are still of pure supergravity origin. By including the latter terms, we find new supersymmetry breaking vacua compatible with single-field inflationary trajectories.…
We present a new model of D-term dominated chaotic inflation in supergravity. The F-flat direction present in this model is lifted by the dominant D-term, which leads to chaotic inflation and subsequent reheating. No cosmic string is formed after inflation because the U(1) gauge symmetry is broken during inflation. The leptogenesis scenario via the inflaton decay in our D-term chaotic inflation scenario is also discussed.
We find the natural embedding of the (R+R^2)-inflationary model into the recently constructed N=1 F(\cal R)-supergravity. It gives a simple and viable realization of chaotic inflation in supergravity. The only requirement for a slow-roll inflation is the existence of the (\cal R)^3-term with an anomalously large coefficient in Taylor expansion of the F(\cal R) function, where \cal R is the covariantly-chiral scalar supercurvature superfield.
This paper provides a systematic study of supergravity contributions relevant for inflationary model building in Jordan frame supergravity. In this framework, canonical kinetic terms in the Jordan frame result in the separation of the Jordan frame scalar potential into a tree-level term and a supergravity contribution, which is potentially dangerous for sustaining inflation. We show that if the vacuum energy necessary for driving inflation originates dominantly from the F-term of an auxiliary field (i.e. not the inflaton), the supergravity corrections to the Jordan frame scalar potential are g…
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.
In this paper we will analyze generic predictions of an inflection-point model of inflation with Hubble-induced corrections and study them in light of the Planck data. Typically inflection-point models of inflation can be embedded within Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) where inflation can occur below the Planck scale. The flexibility of the potential allows us to match the observed amplitude of the TT-power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background radiation with low and high multipoles, spectral tilt, and virtually mild running of the spectral tilt, which can put a bound on an …
It was recently demonstrated that, when coupled to N=1 supergravity, the Dirac-Born-Infeld (DBI) action constructed from a single chiral superfield has the property that when the higher-derivative terms become important, the potential becomes negative. Thus, DBI inflation cannot occur in its most interesting, relativistic regime. In this paper, it is shown how to overcome this problem by coupling the model to one or more additional chiral supermultiplets. In this way, one obtains effective single real scalar field DBI models with arbitrary positive potentials, as well as multiple real scalar f…
We revisit a polynomial chaotic inflation model in supergravity which we proposed soon after the Planck first data release. Recently some issues have been raised in Ref.[12], concerning the validity of our polynomial chaotic inflation model. We study the inflaton dynamics in detail, and confirm that the inflaton potential is very well approximated by a polynomial potential for the parameters of our interest in any practical sense, and in particular, the spectral index and the tensor-to-scalar ratio can be estimated by single-field approximation. This justifies our analysis of the polynomial ch…
We show the effects of supersymmetric higher derivative terms on inflation models in supergravity. The results show that such terms generically modify the effective kinetic coefficient of the inflaton during inflation if the cut off scale of the higher derivative operators is sufficiently small. In such a case, the $η$-problem in supergravity does not occur, and we find that the effective potential of the inflaton generically becomes a power type potential with a power smaller than two.
We describe a simple model of chaotic inflation in supergravity where one can easily tune not only the basic cosmological parameters such as n_{s}, r, and f_NL, but also a possible (subdominant) cosmic string contribution to the CMB anisotropy.
Inflationary slow-roll dynamics in Einstein gravity with a non-minimal scalar-curvature coupling can be equivalent to that in the certain f(R) gravity theory. We review the correspondence and extend it to N=1 supergravity. The non-minimal coupling in supergravity is rewritten in terms of the standard (`minimal') N=1 matter-coupled supergravity by using curved superspace. The established equivalence between two different inflationary theories means the same inflaton scalar potential, and does not imply the same post-inflationary dynamics and reheating.
In F-term supergravity inflation models, scalar fields other than the inflaton generically receive a Hubble induced mass, which may restore gauge symmetries during inflation and phase transitions may occur during or after inflation as the Hubble parameter decreases. We study monopole (and domain wall) production associated with such a phase transition in chaotic inflation in supergravity and obtain a severe constraint on the symmetry breaking scale which is related with the tensor-to-scalar ratio. Depending on model parameters, it is possible that monopoles are sufficiently diluted to be free …
In these lectures, after a short introduction to cosmology, we discuss the supergravity embedding of higher curvature models of inflation. The supergravity description of such models is presented for the two different formulations of minimal supergravity.
We prove (in superspace) the equivalence between the higher-derivative N=1 supergravity, defined by a holomorphic function F of the chiral scalar curvature superfield, and the standard theory of a chiral scalar superfield with a chiral superpotential W, coupled to the (minimal) Poincare supergravity in four spacetime dimensions. The relation between the holomorphic functions F and W is found. It can be used as the technical framework for the possible scenario unifying the early Universe inflation and the present Universe acceleration. We speculate on the possible origin of our model as the eff…
We analyse the multifield behaviour in D-brane inflation when contributions from the bulk are taken into account. For this purpose, we study a large number of realisations of the potential; we find the nature of the inflationary trajectory to be very consistent despite the complex construction. Inflation is always canonical and occurs in the vicinity of an inflection point. Extending the transport method to non-slow-roll and to calculate the running, we obtain distributions for observables. The spectral index is typically blue and the running positive, putting the model under moderate pressure…
We propose a class of inflation models with potential V(ϕ)=αϕ^n exp(-β^m ϕ^m). We show that such kind of inflaton potentials can be realized in supergravity theory with a small shift symmetry breaking term in the Kähler potential. We find that the models with (m=1, n=1), (m=1, n=2), (m=2, n=1), and (m=2, n=3/2) can easily accommodate the Planck results. In particular, the tensor-to-scalar ratio is larger than 0.01 in the 1σregion. Thus, these models generate the typical large field inflation, and can be tested at the future Planck and QUBIC experiments.
Recent work is reported on inflation model building in the context of supergravity and superstrings, with special emphasis on False Vacuum (`Hybrid') Chaotic Inflation. Globally supersymmetric models do not survive in generic supergravity theories, but fairly simple conditions can be formulated which do ensure successful supergravity inflation. The conditions are met in some of the versions of supergravity that emerge from superstrings.
We propose a class of inflation models in which the coefficient of the inflaton kinetic term rapidly changes with energy scale. This may occur especially if the inflaton moves over a long distance during inflation as in the case of large-scale inflation. The peculiar behavior of the kinetic term opens up a new way to construct an inflation model. As a concrete example we construct a linear inflation model in supergravity. It is straightforward to build a chaotic inflation model with a fractional power along the same line. Interestingly, the potential takes a different form after inflation beca…
In the context of dynamical breaking of local supersymmetry (supergravity), including the Deser-Zumino super-Higgs effect, for the simple but quite representative cases of N=1, D=4 supergravity, we discuss the emergence of Starobinsky-type inflation, due to quantum corrections in the effective action arising from integrating out gravitino fields in their massive phase. This type of inflation may occur after a first-stage small-field inflation that characterises models near the origin of the one-loop effective potential, and it may occur at the non-trivial minima of the latter. Phenomenological…
Supergravity models of natural inflation and its generalizations are presented. These models are special examples of the class of supergravity models proposed in arXiv:1008.3375 and arXiv:1011.5945, which have a shift symmetric Kähler potential, superpotential linear in goldstino, and stable Minkowski vacua. We present a class of supergravity models with arbitrary potentials modulated by sinusoidal oscillations, similar to the potentials associated with axion monodromy models. We show that one can implement natural inflation in supergravity even in the models of a single axion field with axion…
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.
