Key to the simplicity of supergravity $α$-attractor models of inflation are Volkov-Akulov fermions, often in the form of nilpotent superfields. Here we explore the possibility of using the double-copy to construct theories of Dirac-Born-Infeld-Volkov-Akulov (DBIVA) coupled to supergravity. A color-dual bootstrap admits scattering amplitudes involving pions and vectors through five-point tree-level order by order in mass-dimension, but requires the introduction of a $\text{Tr}(F^3)$ operator. Gauge theories with this operator were recently found to require a tower of higher-derivative operators to be compatible with color-kinematics duality. Adjoint-type double-copy construction at its most conservative seems to require the UV completion of DBIVA + pure Poincaré supergravity scattering amplitudes to a family of theories involving DBIVA-like particles coupled to Weyl-Einstein supergravity. We also point out an alternative solution to color-dual gauged pions that allows adjoint double-copy without a tower of higher derivative corrections but at the cost of exchange symmetry between scalars.
In this paper, we apply reconstruction techniques to recover the potential parameters for a particular class of single-field models, the $α$-attractor (supergravity) models of inflation. This also allows to derive the inflaton vacuum expectation value at horizon crossing. We show how to use this value as one of the input variables to constrain the postaccelerated inflationary phase. We assume that the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$ is of the order of $10^{-3}$ , a level reachable by the expected sensitivity of the next-generation CMB experiments.
An exponential kind of quintessential inflation potential motivated by supergravity is studied. This type belongs to the class of α-attractor models. The model was studied for the first time by Dimopoulos and Owen in [J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 06 (2017) 027], in which the authors introduced a negative cosmological constant in order to ensure a zero-vacuum energy density at late times. However, in this paper, we disregard this cosmological constant, showing that the obtained results are very close to the ones obtained recently in the context of Lorentzian quintessential inflation and thus dep…
The Planck value of the spectral index can be interpreted as $n_s = 1 - 2/N$ in terms of the number of e-foldings $N$. An appealing explanation for this phenomenological observation is provided by $α$-attractors: the inflationary predictions of these supergravity models are fully determined by the curvature of the Kahler manifold. We provide a novel formulation of $α$-attractors which only involves a single chiral superfield. Our construction involves a natural deformation of no-scale models, and employs these to construct a De Sitter plateau with an exponential fall-off. Finally, we show how …
We construct the on-shell double copy for linearised four-dimensional ${\cal N}=2$ supergravity coupled to one vector multiplet with a quadratic prepotential. We apply this dictionary to the weak-field approximation of dyonic BPS black holes in this theory.
In this paper we analyse non-supersymmetric single centred extremal black hole solutions in N=2 supergravity theory coupled to $n$ vector multiplets with purely cubic pre-potential in four dimensions. We consider the algebraic attractor equations in their most general form at the black hole horizon. We explicitly construct a new class of solutions for these attractor equations. These solutions are characterised by a set of involutory matrices. These involutions are obtained from a constraint involving the parameters in the pre-potential and generate new attractor points in the moduli space.
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 present $α$-attractor models for inflation based on ${\cal N}=1$ supergravity with flat Kähler manifolds. The function form of the associated Kähler potential in these models are logarithmic square in nature and has a visible shift symmetry in its composite canonical variables. The scalar potential $V$ with respect to these field variables has an infinitely long dS valley of constant depth and width at large values of inflaton field $ψ$ and attains a Minkowski minimum at small $ψ$. We illustrate this new framework with a couple of examples.
We compute in detail how deviations from Einstein gravity at the inflation energy scale could appear as non-Gaussian features in the sky. To illustrate this we use multi-field $α-$attractor models in the framework of supergravity to realise inflation. We find no obvious obstacle for having choices of model's parameters that generate non-Gaussian features of the equilateral and local type at the $\cal O$(1) level in the $f_{\rm NL}$ non-Gaussianity parameter, thus being potentially detectable in future cosmological surveys. This non-Gaussianity has its origin in either the non-canonical kinetic…
We consider four-dimensional $N=2$ supergravity coupled to vector- and hypermultiplets, where abelian isometries of the quaternionic Kähler hypermultiplet scalar manifold are gauged. Using the recipe given by Meessen and Ort\'ın in arXiv:1204.0493, we analytically construct a supersymmetric black hole solution for the case of just one vector multiplet with prepotential ${\cal F}=-iχ^0χ^1$, and the universal hypermultiplet. This solution has a running dilaton, and it interpolates between $\text{AdS}_2\times\text{H}^2$ at the horizon and a hyperscaling-violating type geometry at infinity, confor…
We analyze BPS black hole attractors in 4d gauged supergravity in the presence of higher derivative supersymmetric terms, including a Weyl-squared-type action, and determine the resulting corrections to the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy. The near-horizon geometry AdS$_2 \times$S$^2$ (or other Riemann surface) preserves half of the supercharges in $N=2$ supergravity with Fayet-Iliopoulos gauging. We derive a relation between the entropy and the black hole charges that suggests via AdS/CFT how subleading corrections contribute to the supersymmetric index in the dual microscopic picture. Depending o…
We compute the macroscopic entropy of the supersymmetric rotating dyonic strings carrying linear momentum in 6D (1,0) supergravity with curvature squared corrections. Our calculation is based on Sen's entropy function formalism applied to the near-horizon geometry of the string solution taking the form of an extremal BTZ$\times S^3$. The final entropy formula states that the two independent supersymmetric completions of Riemann tensor squared contribute equally to the entropy. A further $S^3$ compactification of the 6D theory results in a matter coupled 3D supergravity model in which the quant…
Supergravities with gauged R-symmetry and Minkowski vacua allow for spontaneous supersymmetry breaking and, as such, provide a framework for building supergravity models of phenomenological relevance. In this letter we initiate the study of double-copy constructions for these supergravities. We argue that, on general grounds, we expect their scattering amplitudes to be described by a double copy of the type: (Higgsed gauge theory) x (gauge theory with broken SUSY). We present a simple realization in which the resulting supergravity has U(1)_R gauge symmetry, spontaneously-broken N=2 supersymme…
We construct the classical double copy formalism for M-theory. This extends the current state of the art by including the three form potential of eleven dimensional supergravity along with the metric. The key for this extension is to construct a Kerr-Schild type Ansatz for exceptional field theory. This Kerr-Schild Ansatz then allows us to find the solutions of charged objects such as the membrane from a set of single copy fields. The exceptional field theory formalism then automatically produces the IIB Kerr-Schild ansatz allowing the construction of the single copy for the fields of IIB supe…
Bianchi attractors are near horizon geometries with homogeneous symmetries in the spatial directions. We construct supersymmetric Bianchi attractors in $\mathcal{N}=2, d=4,5$ gauged supergravity. In $d=4$ we consider gauged supergravity coupled to vector and hypermultiplets. In $d=5$ we consider gauged supergravity coupled to vector multiplets with a generic gauging of symmetries of the scalar manifold and the $U(1)_R$ gauging of the $R$-symmetry. Analyzing the gaugino conditions we show that when the fermionic shifts do not vanish there are no supersymmetric Bianchi attractors. This is analog…
Fibre inflation is a specific string theory construction based on the Large Volume Scenario that produces an inflationary plateau. We outline its relation to $α$-attractor models for inflation, with the cosmological sector originating from certain string theory corrections leading to $α=2$ and $α=1/2$. Above a certain field range, the steepening effect of higher-order corrections leads first to the breakdown of single-field slow-roll and after that to the onset of 2-field dynamics: the overall volume of the extra dimensions starts to participate in the effective dynamics. Finally, we propose e…
We use the recently developed generalized double-copy procedure to construct an integrand for the five-loop four-point amplitude of N=8 supergravity. This construction starts from a naive double copy of the previously computed corresponding amplitude of N=4 super-Yang-Mills theory. This is then systematically modified by adding contact terms generated in the context of the method of maximal unitarity cuts. For the simpler generalized cuts, whose corresponding contact terms tend to be the most complicated, we derive a set of formulas relating the contact contributions to the violations of the d…
In the present investigation we consider the possibility of having new massive, higher spin W-supergravity theories, which do not exist as four-dimensional perturbative models. These theories are based on a double copy construction of two supersymmetric field theories, where at least one factor is given by a N=3 field theory, which is a non-perturbative S-fold of N=4 super Yang-Mills theory. In this way, we can obtain as S-folds a new N=7 (corresponding to 28 supercharges) W-supergravity and its N=7 W-superstring counterpart, which both do not exist as four-dimensional perturbative models with…
I describe a simple class of $α$-attractors, generalizing the single-field GL model of inflation in supergravity. The new class of models is defined for $0<α\lesssim 1$, providing a good match to the present cosmological data. I also present a generalized version of these models which can describe not only inflation but also dark energy and supersymmetry breaking.
Conformal supergravity amplitudes are obtained from the double-copy construction using gauge-theory amplitudes, and compared to direct calculations starting from conformal supergravity Lagrangians. We consider several different theories: minimal ${\cal N}=4$ conformal supergravity, non-minimal ${\cal N}=4$ Berkovits-Witten conformal supergravity, mass-deformed versions of these theories, as well as supersymmetry truncations thereof. Coupling the theories to a Yang-Mills sector is also considered. For all cases we give the gravity Lagrangians that the double copy implicitly generates. The two m…
We expose a double-copy structure in the scattering amplitudes of the generic Jordan family of N=2 Maxwell-Einstein and Yang-Mills/Einstein supergravity theories in four and five dimensions. The Maxwell-Einstein supergravity amplitudes are obtained through the color/kinematics duality as a product of two gauge-theory factors; one originating from pure N=2 super-Yang-Mills theory and the other from the dimensional reduction of a bosonic higher-dimensional pure Yang-Mills theory. We identify a specific symplectic frame in four dimensions for which the on-shell fields and amplitudes from the doub…
We show that the inflaton coupling to all other fields is exponentially suppressed during inflation in the cosmological $α$-attractor models. In the context of supergravity, this feature is a consequence of the underlying hyperbolic geometry of the moduli space which has a flat direction corresponding to the inflaton field. A combination of these factors protects the asymptotic flatness of the inflaton potential.
Non-extremal black holes in $\mathcal{N}=2$ supergravity have two horizons, the geometric mean of whose areas recovers the horizon area of the extremal black hole obtained from taking a smooth zero temperature limit. In prior work (arxiv:1410.3478), using the attractor mechanism, we deduced the existence of several moduli independent invariant quantities obtained from averaging over a decoupled inter-horizon region. We establish that non-extremal geometries at the Reissner--Nordström point, where the scalar moduli are held fixed, can be lifted to solutions in supergravity with a near-horizon A…
We establish an attractor mechanism for the horizon metric of asymptotically locally AdS4 supersymmetric black holes. The Kähler moduli of the metric are not fixed in the asymptotic region, however supersymmetry dictates that the near horizon metric must be the constant curvature one. We show how this mechanism is realized in detail for four-dimensional N=2 gauged supergravity coupled to vector multiplets by focusing on the STU model. A similar analysis is performed for gauged supergravity theories in five, six, and seven dimensions where we establish the same mechanism by extending previous r…
In this PhD thesis, we investigate generic features of inflation which are strictly related to fundamental aspects of UV-physics scenarios, such as string theory or supergravity. After a short introduction to standard and inflationary cosmology, we present our research findings. On the one hand, we show that focusing on universality properties of inflation can yield surprisingly stringent bounds on its dynamics. This approach allows us to identify the regime where the inflationary field range is uniquely determined by both the tensor-to-scalar ratio and the spectral index. Then, we derive a no…
We discuss the generalization of the Kerr-Schild (KS) formalism for general relativity and double field theory (DFT) to the heterotic DFT and supergravity. We first introduce a heterotic KS ansatz by introducing a pair of null O(d,d+G) generalized tangent vectors. The pair of null vectors are represented by a pair of d-dimensional vector fields, and one of the vector fields is not a null vector. This implies that the null property of the usual KS formalism, which plays a crucial role in linearizing the field equations, can be partially relaxed in a consistent way. We show that the equations of…
