No Arabic abstract
We briefly summarize the impact of the recent Planck measurements for string inflationary models, and outline what might be expected to be learned in the near future from the expected improvement in sensitivity to the primordial tensor-to-scalar ratio. We comment on whether these models provide sufficient added value to compensate for their complexity, and ask how they fare in the face of the new constraints on non-gaussianity and dark radiation. We argue that as a group the predictions made before Planck agree well with what has been seen, and draw conclusions from this about what is likely to mean as sensitivity to primordial gravitational waves improves.
Hilltop inflation models are often described by potentials $V = V_{0}(1-{phi^{n}over m^{n}}+...)$. The omitted terms indicated by ellipsis do not affect inflation for $m lesssim 1$, but the most popular models with $n =2$ and $4$ for $m lesssim 1$ are ruled out observationally. Meanwhile in the large $m$ limit the results of the calculations of the tensor to scalar ratio $r$ in the models with $V = V_{0}(1-{phi^{n}over m^{n}})$, for all $n$, converge to $r= 4/N lesssim 0.07$, as in chaotic inflation with $V sim phi$, suggesting a reasonably good fit to the Planck data. We show, however, that this is an artifact related to the inconsistency of the model $V = V_{0}(1-{phi^{n}over m^{n}})$ at $phi > m$. Consistent generalizations of this model in the large $m$ limit typically lead to a much greater value $r= 8/N$, which negatively affects the observational status of hilltop inflation. Similar results are valid for D-brane inflation with $V = V_{0}(1-{m^{n}over phi^{n}})$, but consistent generalizations of D-brane inflation models may successfully complement $alpha$-attractors in describing most of the area in the ($n_{s}$, $r$) space favored by Planck 2018.
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 parameters for the most general form of $S$-dual potentials and confront model predictions to constraints imposed by the de Sitter conjecture. We find that $c sim {cal O} (10^{-1})$ and $c sim {cal O} (10^{-2})$ can accommodate the 95% CL upper limit on $r$. By imposing at least 50 $e$-folds of inflation with the effective field theory description only valid over a field displacement ${cal O} (1)$ when measured as a distance in the target space geometry, we further restrict $c sim {cal O} (10^{-2})$, while the constraint on $c$ remains unchanged. We comment on how to accommodate the required small values of $c$ and $c$.
We study the dynamics of $SU(2)_L$ times $U(1)_Y$ electroweak gauge fields during and after Higgs inflation. In particular, we investigate configurations of the gauge fields during inflation and find the gauge fields remain topologically non-trivial. We also find that the gauge fields grow due to parametric resonances caused by oscillations of a Higgs field after inflation. We show that the Chern-Simons number also grows significantly. Interestingly, the parametric amplification gives rise to sizable magnetic fields after the inflation whose final amplitudes depend on the anisotropy survived during inflation.
We propose the natural inflation from the heterotic string theory on Swiss-Cheese Calabi-Yau manifold with multiple $U(1)$ magnetic fluxes. Such multiple $U(1)$ magnetic fluxes stabilize the same number of the linear combination of the universal axion and Kahler axions and one of the Kahler axions is identified as the inflaton. This axion decay constant can be determined by the size of one-loop corrections to the gauge kinetic function of the hidden gauge groups, which leads effectively to the trans-Planckian axion decay constant consistent with the WMAP, Planck and/or BICEP2 data. During the inflation, the real parts of the moduli are also stabilized by employing the nature of the Swiss-Cheese Calabi-Yau manifold.
The QCD axion solving the strong CP problem may originate from antisymmetric tensor gauge fields in compactified string theory, with a decay constant around the GUT scale. Such possibility appears to be ruled out now by the detection of tensor modes by BICEP2 and the PLANCK constraints on isocurvature density perturbations. A more interesting and still viable possibility is that the string theoretic QCD axion is charged under an anomalous U(1)_A gauge symmetry. In such case, the axion decay constant can be much lower than the GUT scale if moduli are stabilized near the point of vanishing Fayet-Illiopoulos term, and U(1)_A-charged matter fields get a vacuum value far below the GUT scale due to a tachyonic SUSY breaking scalar mass. We examine the symmetry breaking pattern of such models during the inflationary epoch with the Hubble expansion rate 10^{14} GeV, and identify the range of the QCD axion decay constant, as well as the corresponding relic axion abundance, consistent with known cosmological constraints. In addition to the case that the PQ symmetry is restored during inflation, there are other viable scenarios, including that the PQ symmetry is broken during inflation at high scales around 10^{16}-10^{17} GeV due to a large Hubble-induced tachyonic scalar mass from the U(1)_A D-term, while the present axion scale is in the range 10^{9}-5times 10^{13} GeV, where the present value larger than 10^{12} GeV requires a fine-tuning of the axion misalignment angle. We also discuss the implications of our results for the size of SUSY breaking soft masses.