We summarize and extend our work on nonsupersymmetric solutions of a 5d consistent truncation of type IIB supergravity, that is relevant for gauge/gravity duality. The fields in this 5d theory are the five-dimensional metric and a set of scalars. We find solutions of the 5d equations of motion, which represent dS_4 foliations over the fifth (radial) dimension. In each solution at least one scalar has a nontrivial radial profile. These scalars are interpreted as glueballs in the dual gauge theory, living in 4d de Sitter space. We explain why this lays a foundation for building gravity duals of glueball inflation models.
We investigate glueball inflation model-building via the methods of the gauge/gravity duality. For that purpose, we consider a certain 5d consistent truncation of type IIB supergravity. This theory admits a solution, whose metric is of the form of a $dS_4$ fibration over a fifth dimension. We find a new time-dependent deformation around this solution, which allows for a small $η$ parameter of the corresponding inflationary model. This resolves a problem with a previous solution that allowed only $η$ of order one and thus gave only an ultra-slow roll regime, but not regular slow roll.
We address the issue of glueball masses in a holographic dual field theory on the boundary of an AdS space deformed by a four-dimensional cosmological constant. These glueballs are related to scalar and tensorial fluctuations of the bulk fields on this space. In the Euclidean AdS4 case the allowed masses are discretized and are related to distinct inflaton masses on a 3-brane with several states of inflation. We then obtain the e-folds number in terms of the glueball masses. In the last part we focus on the Lorentzian dS4 case to focus on the QCD equation of state in dual field theory.
We derive the glueball masses in noncommutative super Yang--Mills theories in four dimensions via the dual supergravity description. The spectrum of glueball masses is discrete due to the noncommutativity and the glueball masses are proportional to the noncommutativity parameter with dimension of length. The mass spectrum in the WKB approximation closely agrees with the mass spectrum in finite temperature Yang--Mills theory.
We explore the paradigm according to which inflation is driven by a four-dimensional strongly coupled dynamics coupled non-minimally to gravity. We start by introducing the general setup, both in the metric and Palatini formulation, for generic models of composite inflation. We then analyze the relevant example where the inflaton is identified with the glueball field of a pure Yang-Mills theory. We introduce the dilatonic-like glueball action which is obtained by requiring saturation of the underlying Yang-Mills trace anomaly at the effective action level. We couple the resulting action non-mi…
We derive WKB expressions for glueball masses of various finite temperature supergravity models. The results are very close to recent numerical computations. We argue that the spectra has some universality that depends only on the dimension of the AdS space and the singularity structure of the horizon. This explains the stability of the $0^{++}$ glueball mass ratios between various models. We also consider the recently proposed nonsupersymmetric model arising from the type 0 string. In the supergravity limit of this model, the heavy quark potential has an effective coupling with 1/(log u) beha…
We study the glueball spectrum in the supersymmetric and non-supersymmetric 4D non-commutative dipole gauge theory from the holographic description. We adopt the semiclassical WKB approximation to solve the dilaton and antisymmetric tensor field equations on the dual supergravity backgrounds to find the analytic formula of the spectrum of $0^{++}$ and $1^{--}$ glueballs, respectively. In the supersymmetric theory we see that the dipole length plays the intrinsic scale which reflects the discrete spectrum therein. In the non-supersymmetric theory, the temperature (or the radius of compactificat…
We explore the string spectrum in the Witten QCD model by considering classical string configurations, thereby obtaining energy formulas for quantum states with large excitation quantum numbers representing glueballs and Kaluza-Klein states. In units of the string tension, the energies of all states increase as the 't Hooft coupling $λ$ is decreased, except the energies of glueballs corresponding to strings lying on the horizon, which remain constant. We argue that some string solutions can be extrapolated to the small $λ$ regime. We also find the classical mechanics description of supergravit…
The spectrum of light baryons and mesons has been reproduced recently by Brodsky and Teramond from a holographic dual to QCD inspired in the AdS/CFT correspondence. They associate fluctuations about the AdS geometry with four dimensional angular momenta of the dual QCD states. We use a similar approach to estimate masses of glueball states with different spins and their excitations. We consider Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions and find approximate linear Regge trajectories for these glueballs. In particular the Neumann case is consistent with the Pomeron trajectory.
We investigate the glueball spectrum of a strongly coupled gauge theory with two dynamical scales. The main tool is the use of the gauge/gravity duality. The model we study has a known graviational dual, which arises from a type IIB D-brane configuration. It exhibits two dynamical scales, separated by a nearly conformal region. Thus, it is of great interest for the study of walking in gauge theories. By using the gravitational description, we are able to compute analytically the glueball mass spectrum in a certain range of the parameter space of the theory. Within that range, we do not find a …
Using techniques developed in a previous paper three-point functions in field theories described by holographic renormalization group flows are computed. We consider a system of one active scalar and one inert scalar coupled to gravity. For the GPPZ flow, their dual operators create states that are interpreted as glueballs of the N=1 SYM theory, which lies at the infrared end of the renormalization group flow. The scattering amplitudes for three-glueball processes are calculated providing precise predictions for glueball decays in N=1 SYM theory. Numerical results for low-lying glueballs are i…
It is shown that SU(2) QCD admits an dual Abelian-Higgs phase, with a Higgs vacuum type of type-II superconductor. This is done by using connection decomposition for the gluon field and the random-direction approximation. Using bag picture with soft wall, we presented a calculational procedure for glueball energy based on the recent proof for wall-vortices [Nucl. Phys. B 741(2006)1].
We compute the mass spectrum of glueball excitations of a special class of strongly-coupled field theories via their type-IIB supergravity dual. We focus on two subclasses of backgrounds, which have different UV-asymptotics, but both of which exhibit walking behavior, in the weak sense that the gauge coupling of the dual field theory exhibits a quasi-constant behavior at strong coupling over a range of energies, before diverging in the deep IR. We improve on earlier calculations, by making use of the fully rigorous treatment of the 5-dimensional consistent truncation, including the rigorous fo…
We study aspects of confinement in two deformed versions of the AdS/CFT correspondence - the GPPZ dual of N=1* Yang Mills, and the Yang Mills* N=0 dual. Both geometries describe discrete glueball spectra which we calculate numerically. The results agree at the 10% level with previous AdS/CFT computations in the Klebanov Strassler background and AdS Schwarzchild respectively. We also calculate the spectra of bound states of the massive fermions in these geometries and show that they are light, so not decoupled from the dynamics. We then study the behaviour of Wilson loops in the 10d lifts of th…
We study the spectrum of scalar glueballs in SQCD-like theories whose gravity description is in terms of Nc D5 color branes wrapped on an S^2 inside a CY3-fold, and Nf backreacting D5 flavor branes wrapped on a non-compact two-cycle inside the same CY3-fold. We show that there exists a consistent truncation of the ten-dimensional Type IIB supergravity system to a five-dimensional non-linear sigma model consisting of four scalars coupled to gravity. Studying fluctuations of the scalars as well as the metric around particular backgrounds allows us to compute their spectra. A few different backgr…
We study time-dependent deformations of a certain class of backgrounds in type IIB supergravity. These backgrounds are solutions of a five-dimensional consistent truncation, relevant for gauge/gravity duality, which have the form of dS_4 foliations over a fifth (radial) direction. We investigate time-dependent deformations of those solutions in the search for gravitational duals of models of glueball inflation. A particular starting ansatz enables us to find a class of analytical solutions, corresponding to an ultra-slow roll inflationary regime. This regime may play a role in understanding th…
The glueballs lead to gluon and QCD monopole condensations as by-products of color confinement. A color dielectric function $G(|ϕ|)$ coupled with Abelian gauge field is properly defined to mediate the glueball interactions at confining regime after {\it spontaneous symmetry breaking} (SSB) of the gauge symmetry. The particles are expected to form through quark gluon plasma (QGP) hadronization phase where the free quarks and gluons start clamping together to form hadrons. The QCD-like vacuum $\langleη^2m_η^2F^{μν}F_{μν}\rangle$, confining potential $V_c(r)$, string tension $σ$, penetration dept…
In this work, we examine cosmological constraints on models of composite inflation based on the slow-roll approximation by using the recent Planck measurement. We compare the spectral index of curvature perturbation (and its running) and the tensor-to-scalar ratio predicted by such models with Planck 2015 data. We find that the predictions of technicolor inflation are nicely consistent with the Planck analysis. Moreover, the predictions from the second model, glueball inflation, are in good agreement with the Planck data at $2σ$C.L. However, the final two models, super glueball inflation and o…
It has been shown by Polchinski and Strassler that the scaling of high energy QCD scattering amplitudes can be obtained from string theory. They considered an AdS slice as an approximation for the dual space of a confining gauge theory. Here we use this approximation to estimate in a very simple way the ratios of scalar glueball masses imposing Dirichlet boundary conditions on the string dilaton field. These ratios are in good agreement with the results in the literature. We also find that they do not depend on the size of the slice.
Inspired in the AdS/CFT correspondence, a variety of holographic phenomenological models have been proposed in the last years to describe non-perturbative aspects of strong interactions. These models are denominated as AdS/QCD. In this work we review the use of the AdS/QCD soft-wall model to investigate the spectrum of scalar glueballs at finite temperature. The scalar glueball states are identified as the poles of the retarded correlation function of the glueball operator. In the gauge/gravity duality, these poles are determined by the quasinormal spectrum of a massless scalar field propagati…
Predictions of glueball decay rates in the holographic Witten-Sakai-Sugimoto model for low-energy QCD can be uniquely extended to include finite quark masses up to an as yet undetermined parameter in the coupling of glueballs to the nonanomalous part of the pseudoscalar mass terms. The assumption of a universal coupling of glueballs to mass terms of the full nonet of pseudoscalar mesons leads to flavor asymmetries in the decay rates of scalar glueballs that agree well with experimental data for the glueball candidate $f_0(1710)$ and implies a vanishing decay rate into $ηη'$ pairs, for which on…
Building on earlier results on holographic bulk dynamics in confining gauge theories, we compute the spin-0 and spin-2 spectra of gauge theories dual to the non-singular Maldacena-Nunez and Klebanov-Strassler supergravity backgrounds. We construct and apply a numerical recipe for computing mass spectra from certain determinants. In the Klebanov-Strassler case, states containing the glueball and gluinoball obey "quadratic confinement", i.e. their mass-squareds depend on consecutive number as m^2 ~ n^2 for large n, with a universal proportionality constant. The hardwall approximation appears to …
We compute glueball superpotentials for four-dimensional, N=1 supersymmetric gauge theories, with arbitrary gauge groups and massive matter representations. This is done by perturbatively integrating out massive, charged fields. The Feynman diagram computations simplify, and are related to the corresponding matrix model. This leads to a natural notion of ``projection to planar diagrams'' for arbitrary gauge groups and representations. We discuss a general ambiguity in the glueball superpotential W(S) for terms, S^n, whose order, n, is greater than the dual Coxeter number. This ambiguity can be…
We study non-spinning Q-balls and boson stars in 4-dimensional Anti-de Sitter (AdS) space-time. We use an exponential scalar field potential that appears in gauge-mediated supersymmetry (SUSY) breaking in the minimal supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model (MSSM). We investigate the dependence of the charge and mass of these non-topological solitons on the negative cosmological constant, the frequency that appears in the periodic time-dependence as well as on the ratio between the SUSY breaking scale and the Planck mass. Next to fundamental solutions without nodes in the scalar field fu…
Mass spectrum of 0++ glueballs is produced using a dual supergravity theory we proposed for pure N=1 SU(N) gauge theory in four dimensions in the large N limit in the IR. The glueball states are expressed in terms of Whittaker functions. The spectrum is discrete and a function whose roots give the masses is written. The ratios of the masses are independent of the parameters of the theory and comparison to recent non-supersymmetric large N lattice QCD data available for the lowest three states shows agreement to within five percent.
Many examples of gravitational duals exist of theories that are highly supersymmetric and conformal in the UV yet have the same massless states as {\cal N}=2,1,0 QCD. We discuss such theories with an explicit UV cutoff and propose that, by tuning higher dimension operators at the cutoff by hand, the effects of the extra matter states in the UV may be removed from the IR physics. We explicitly work in the AdS-Schwartzschild description of QCD_4 and tune the operator TrF^4 by relaxing the near horizon limit to reproduce the lattice 0^{++} glueball mass results. We find that to reproduce the latt…
We reconsider a one-parameter class of known solutions of the circle compactification of Romans six-dimensional half-maximal supergravity. The gauge-theory duals of these solutions are confining four-dimensional field theories. Their UV completions consist of the compactification on a circle of a higher-dimensional field theory that is flowing between two fixed points in five dimensions. We systematically study the bosonic fluctuations of the supergravity theory, corresponding to the bosonic glueballs of the dual field theory. We perform numerically the calculation of the spectrum of excitatio…
We study the spectrum of massive excitations in three-dimensional models belonging to the Ising universality class. By solving the Bethe-Salpeter equation for 3D $ϕ^4$ theory in the broken symmetry phase we show that recently found non-perturbative states can be interpreted as bound states of the fundamental excitation. We show that duality predicts an exact correspondence between the spectra of the Ising model in the broken symmetry phase and of the Z(2) gauge theory in the confining phase. The interpretation of the glueball states of the gauge theory as bound states of the dual spin system a…
Recently Polchinski and Strassler reproduced the high energy QCD scaling at fixed angles from a gauge string duality inspired in AdS/CFT correspondence. In their approach a confining gauge theory is taken as approximately dual to an AdS space with an IR cut off. Considering such an approximation (AdS slice) we found a one to one holographic mapping between bulk and boundary scalar fields. Associating the bulk fields with dilatons and the boundary fields with glueballs of the confining gauge theory we also found the same high energy QCD scaling. Here, using this holographic mapping we give a si…
In the framework of the conjectured duality relation between large $N$ gauge theory and supergravity the spectra of masses in large $N$ gauge theory can be determined by solving certain eigenvalue problems in supergravity. In this paper we study the eigenmass problem given by Witten as a possible approximation for masses in QCD without supersymmetry. We place a particular emphasis on the treatment of the horizon and related boundary conditions. We construct exact expressions for the analytic expansions of the wave functions both at the horizon and at infinity and show that requiring smoothness…
Global-local duality is the equivalence of seemingly different regulators in eternal inflation. For example, the light-cone time cutoff (a global measure, which regulates time) makes the same predictions as the causal patch (a local measure that cuts off space). We show that global-local duality is far more general. It rests on a redundancy inherent in any global cutoff: at late times, an attractor regime is reached, characterized by the unlimited exponential self-reproduction of a certain fundamental region of spacetime. An equivalent local cutoff can be obtained by restricting to this fundam…
We calculate the spectrum of glueball masses in non-supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory in three and four dimensions, based on a conjectured duality between supergravity and large N gauge theories. The glueball masses are obtained by solving supergravity wave equations in a black hole geometry. We find that the mass ratios are in good numerical agreement with the available lattice data. We also compute the leading (g_{YM}^2 N)^{-1} corrections to the glueball masses, by taking into account stringy corrections to the supergravity action and to the black hole metric. We find that the corrections to…
Within gauge/gravity duality, we compute the scalar and tensor mass spectrum in the boundary theory defined by the five-dimensional sigma-model coupled to gravity obtained by constraining to eight scalars the truncation on T$^{1,1}$ that corresponds to the Papadopoulos-Tseytlin (PT) ansatz. We study fluctuations around the 1-parameter family of backgrounds that lift to the baryonic branch of the Klebanov-Strassler (KS) system, and interpolates between the KS background and the Maldacena-Nunez one (CVMN). We adopt a gauge invariant formalism in the treatment of the fluctuations that we interpre…
We show that new nonperturbative scales exist in four-dimensional ${\cal{N}}$$=$$1$ super-Yang-Mills theory compactified on a circle, with an iterated-exponential dependence on the inverse gauge coupling. The lightest states with the quantum numbers of four-dimensional glueballs are nonrelativistic bound states of dual Cartan gluons and superpartners, with binding energy equal to $e^{- e^{1/g^2}}$ in units of the confining mass gap. Focusing on $SU(2)$ gauge group, we construct the nonrelativistic effective theory, show that the lightest glueball/glueballino states fill a chiral supermultiplet…
We describe a ten dimensional supergravity geometry which is dual to a gauge theory that is non-supersymmetric Yang Mills in the infra-red but reverts to $N$=4 super Yang Mills in the ultra-violet. A brane probe of the geometry shows that the scalar potential of the gauge theory is stable. We discuss the infra-red behaviour of the solution. The geometry describes a Schroedinger equation potential that determines the glueball spectrum of the theory; there is a mass gap and a discrete spectrum. The glueball mass predictions match previous AdS/CFT Correspondence computations in the non-supersymme…
We announce new results on glueball decay rates in the Sakai-Sugimoto model, a realization of holographic QCD from first principles that has only one coupling constant and an overall mass scale as free parameters. We extend a previous investigation by Hashimoto, Tan, and Terashima who have considered the lowest scalar glueball which arises from a somewhat exotic polarization of supergravity modes and whose mass is uncomfortably small in comparison with lattice results. On the other hand, the scalar glueball dual to the dilaton turns out to have a mass of about twice the mass of the rho meson (…
We interpret D-strings at the bottom of the warped deformed conifold as axionic strings in the dual cascading SU(N+M) x SU(N) gauge theory. The axion is a massless pseudo-scalar glueball which we find in the supergravity fluctuation spectrum and interpret as the Goldstone boson of spontaneously broken U(1) baryon number symmetry. The existence of this massless glueball, anticipated in hep-th/0101013, supports the idea that the cascading gauge theory is on the baryonic branch, i.e. the U(1)_B global symmetry is broken by expectation values of baryonic operators. We also find a massless scalar g…
This thesis consists of two parts. In the first part we study some topics in $\mathcal{N}=1$ supersymmeric gauge theory and the relation to matrix models. We review the relevant non-perturbative techniques for computing effective superpotential, such as Seiberg-Witten curve. Then we review the proposal of Dijkgraaf and Vafa that relates the glueball superpotentials to the computation in matrix models. We then consider a case of multi-trace superpotential. We perform the perturbative computation of glueball superpotential in this case and explain the subtlety in identifying the glueball superfi…
We discuss a solution of the equations of motion of five-dimensional gauged type IIB supergravity that describes confining SU(N) gauge theories at large N and large 't Hooft parameter. We prove confinement by computing the Wilson loop, and we show that our solution is generic, independent of most of the details of the theory. In particular, the Einstein-frame metric near its singularity, and the condensates of scalar, composite operators are universal. Also universal is the discreteness of the glueball mass spectrum and the existence of a mass gap. The metric is also identical to a generically…
We investigate gauge/gravity duality for gauge theories in de Sitter space. More precisely, we study a five-dimensional consistent truncation of type IIB supergravity, which encompasses a wide variety of gravity duals of strongly coupled gauge theories, including the Maldacena-Nunez solution and its walking deformations. We find several solutions of the 5d theory with dS_4 spacetime and nontrivial profiles for (some of) the scalars along the fifth (radial) direction. In the process, we prove that one of the equations of motion becomes dependent on the others, for nontrivial warp factor. This d…
The complexity of "top-down" string-dual candidates for strongly-coupled Yang-Mills theories and in particular for QCD almost always prohibits their exact analytical or even comprehensive numerical treatment. This impedes both a thorough quantitative analysis and the development of more realistic gravity duals. To mitigate these impediments, we devise an analytical approach to top-down duals on the basis of controlled, uniformly converging high-accuracy approximations for the normalizable string modes corresponding to gauge-theory states. We demonstrate the potential of this approach in Witten…
It is showed by a conformal rescaling that the inflationary background can be dual to a slowly expanding background, which is almost Minkowski and described by a conformal field theory conformally coupled to gravity. It is proved that the primordial curvature perturbation and tensor perturbation generated during these two conformally equivalent backgrounds are completely equal, and the scale invariance of perturbations is determined by the conformal invariance of field theory in slowly expanding background. In dual slowly expanding scenario, the primordial universe is asymptotical to a static …
We show that S-dual inflationary potentials solve the unlikeliness problem manifested in Planck data and explain the excess B-mode power observed by the BICEP2 experiment as arising from primordial tensor fluctuations.
In this article, we want to check four inflation models, such as composite NJL inflation (NJLI), Glueball inflation(GI), super Yang-Mills inflation (SYMI), and Orientifold inflation (OI), with two conjectures of the swampland program: scalar weak gravity conjecture (SWGC) and strong scalar weak gravity conjecture (SSWGC) since all these models violate the dS swampland conjecture(DSC) but are compatible with further refining de Sitter swampland conjecture (FRDSSC) through manual adjustment of free parameters of the mentioned conjecture. We want to study the simultaneous compatibility of each mo…
Using the pull-back of the perturbed type IIA metric corresponding to the perturbation of arXiv:hep-th/1306.4339's M-theory uplift of arXiv:hep-th/0902.1540's UV-complete top-down type IIB holographic dual of large-$N$ thermal QCD, at finite coupling, we obtain the interaction Lagrangian corresponding to exotic scalar glueball($G_E$)-$ρ/π$-meson interaction, linear in the exotic scalar glueball and up to quartic order in the $π$ mesons. In the Lagrangian, the coupling constants are determined as (radial integrals of) arXiv:hep-th/1306.4339's M-theory uplift's metric components and six radial f…
We derive all single-field cosmologies with unit sound speed that generate scale invariant curvature perturbations on a dynamical attractor background. We identify three distinct phases: slow-roll inflation; a slowly contracting adiabatic ekpyrotic phase, described by a rapidly-varying equation of state; and a novel adiabatic ekpyrotic phase on a slowly expanding background. All of these yield identical power spectra. The degeneracy is broken at the 3-point level: unlike the nearly gaussian spectrum of slow-roll inflation, adiabatic ekpyrosis predicts large non-gaussianities on small scales.
Considering the setup of arXiv:0902.1540 [hep-th] involving UV-complete top-down type IIB holographic dual of large-N thermal QCD with a fluxed resolved warped deformed conifold, in arXiv:1306.4339 [hep-th] delocalized type IIA S(trominger)-Y(au)-Z(aslow)mirror of the type IIB background of arXiv:0902.1540 [hep-th] was constructed via three T dualities along a special Lagrangian $T^{3}$ fibered over a large base and then uplifted, locally, to the 11-dimensional ${\cal M}$-theory. Considering the aforementioned setup arXiv:1306.4339 [hep-th] in the `MQGP' limit, in arXiv:1703.01306 [hep-th] we …
The top-down type IIB holographic dual of large-$N$ thermal QCD as constructed in arXiv:0902.1540 involving a fluxed resolved warped deformed conifold, its delocalized type IIA SYZ mirror as well as its M-theory uplift constructed in arXiv:1306.4339 - both in the finite gauge coupling ($g_s\stackrel{<}{\sim}1$)/`MQGP' limit of arXiv:1306.4339 - were shown explicitly to possess a local $SU(3)/G_2$-structure in arXiv:1507.02692 Glueball spectroscopy at finite gauge coupling has thus far been missing in the literature. In this paper, we fill this gap by calculating the masses of the $0^{++}, 0^{-…
It is pointed out that the low energy effective theory that describes the low lying glueballs of the pure Yang Mills theory sustains static classical stringlike solutions. We suggest that these objects can be identified with the QCD flux tubes and their energy per unit length with the string tension.
We consider high-energy fixed-angle scattering of glueballs in confining gauge theories that have supergravity duals. Although the effective description is in terms of the scattering of strings, we find that the amplitudes are hard (power law). This is a consequence of the warped geometry of the dual theory, which has the effect that in an inertial frame the string process is never in the soft regime. At small angle we find hard and Regge behaviors in different kinematic regions.
We propose a new model of inflation based on the soft-breaking of N=2 supersymmetric SU(2) Yang-Mills theory. The advantage of such a model is the fact that we can write an exact expression for the effective scalar potential, including non-perturbative effects, which preserves the analyticity and duality properties of the Seiberg-Witten solution. We find that the scalar condensate that plays the role of the inflaton can drive a long period of cosmological expansion, produce the right amount of temperature anisotropies in the microwave background, and end inflation when the monopole acquires a …
In this work, we consider a massive gauge boson field in AdS$_5$ dual to odd glueball states with twist-5 operator in 4D Minkowski spacetime. Introducing an IR cutoff we break the conformal symmetry of the boundary theory allowing us to calculate the glueball masses with odd spins using Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions. Then, from these masses we construct the corresponding Regge trajectories associated with the odderon. Our results are compatible with the ones in the literature.
We study the dual 3d Euclidean RG flow of single-field slow-roll Inflation using the postulates of the dS/CFT correspondence. For that purpose we solve for the inflationary fluctuation at all times using a matching procedure between two approximate solutions which are separately valid at different regions of the space of parameters but together cover all of it. The two modes of the full solution mix such that each of the modes at late times is a superposition of the modes in the quasi-de Sitter region. We find that the dual theory admits two phases of explicit and spontaneous breaking of confo…
The encoding of an inflating patch of space-time in terms of a dual theory is discussed. Following Bousso's interpretation of the holographic principle, we find that those are generically described not by states in the dual theory but by density matrices. We try to implement this idea on simple deformations of the AdS/CFT examples, and an argument is given as to why inflation is so elusive to string theory.
We propose a new construction of the supergravity inflation as an UV completion of the Higgs-$R^2$ inflation. In the dual description of $R^2$-supergravity, we show that there appear dual chiral superfields containing the scalaron or sigma field in the Starobinsky inflation, which unitarizes the supersymmetric Higgs inflation with a large non-minimal coupling up to the Planck scale. We find that a successful slow-roll inflation is achievable in the Higgs-sigma field space, but under the condition that higher curvature terms are introduced to cure the tachyonic mass problems for spectator singl…
The Swampland de Sitter conjecture in combination with upper limits on the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$ derived from observations of the cosmic microwave background endangers the paradigm of slow-roll single field inflation. This conjecture constrains the first and the second derivatives of the inflationary potential in terms of two ${\cal O} (1)$ constants $c$ and $c'$. In view of these restrictions we reexamine single-field inflationary potentials with $S$-duality symmetry, which ameliorate the unlikeliness problem of the initial condition. We compute $r$ at next-to-leading order in slow-roll …
The usual theory of inflation breaks down in eternal inflation. We derive a dual description of eternal inflation in terms of a deformed Euclidean CFT located at the threshold of eternal inflation. The partition function gives the amplitude of different geometries of the threshold surface in the no-boundary state. Its local and global behavior in dual toy models shows that the amplitude is low for surfaces which are not nearly conformal to the round three-sphere and essentially zero for surfaces with negative curvature. Based on this we conjecture that the exit from eternal inflation does not …
