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 inflection point. Models with only negative exponents require uplifting and in consequence have the supersymmetry breaking scale higher than the inflation scale. Fine-tuning of parameters and initial conditions is analyzed in some detail for both types of models. It is found that fine-tuning of parameters in models with heavy gravitino is much stronger than in models with light gravitino. It is shown that recently proposed time dependent potentials can provide a solution to the problem of the initial conditions only in models with heavy gravitino. Such potentials can not be used to relax fine tuning of parameters in any model because this would lead to values of the spectral index well outside the experimental bounds.
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 conditions for the superpotential, and e.g. the popular racetrack superpotential turns out to be not suitable. A model is proposed in which slow-roll inflation and a light gravitino are compatible. It is based on a superpotential with a triple gaugino condensation and the Kahler potential with the leading string corrections. The problem of fine tuning and experimental constraints are discussed for that model.
We present an inflationary scenario based on a phenomenologically viable model with direct gauge mediation of low-scale supersymmetry breaking. Inflation can occur in the supersymmetry-breaking hidden sector. Although the reheating temperature from the inflaton decay is so high that the gravitino problem seems to be severe, late time entropy production from the decay of the pseudomoduli field associated with the supersymmetry breaking can dilute gravitinos sufficiently. We show that gravitinos are also produced from the pseudomoduli decay and there is a model parameter space where gravitinos can be the dark matter in the present universe.
In models of low-energy gauge mediation, the observed Higgs mass is in tension with the cosmological limit on the gravitino mass $m_{3/2} lesssim 16$ eV. We present an alternative mediation mechanism of supersymmetry breaking via a $U(1)$ $D$-term with an $E_6$-inspired particle content, which we call vector mediation. The gravitino mass can be in the eV range. The sfermion masses are at the 10 TeV scale, while gauginos around a TeV. This mechanism also greatly ameliorates the $mu$-problem.
We investigate the possibility to induce double peaks of gravitational wave(GW) spectrum from primordial scalar perturbations in inflationary models with three inflection points.Where the inflection points can be generated from a polynomial potential or generated from Higgs like $phi^4$ potential with the running of quartic coupling.In such models, the inflection point at large scales predicts the scalar spectral index and tensor-to-scalar ratio consistent with current CMB constraints, and the other two inflection points generate two large peaks in the scalar power spectrum at small scales, which can induce GWs with double peaks energy spectrum. We find that for some choices parameters the double peaks spectrum can be detected by future GW detectors, and one of the peaks around $fsimeq10^{-9}sim10^{-8}$Hz can also explain the recent NANOGrav signal. Moreover, the peaks of power spectrum allow for the generation of primordial black holes, which account for a significant fraction of dark matter.
In the theories described by a volume normalized action functional, an arbitrary cosmological constant is eliminated from the physical picture of our Universe, and dynamical alternatives must be responsible for todays accelerated expansion as well as for the conjectured early-time inflation in the Universe. A few well-known such scenarios realized by a single homogeneous scalar field are examined in this new context, and their diverse fates are elucidated. Typical inflationary models are not affected at the level of the background evolution, and also give rise to the scalar perturbations equivalent to those obtained in the standard General Relativity; however, the primordial quantum tensor fluctuations are absent in the new framework, irrespective of the inflationary model. As a consequence, our proposal would be ruled out should the primordial tensor modes, or their indirect consequences, be discovered in observations.