New Kähler invariant Fayet–Iliopoulos terms in supergravity and cosmological applications

Abstract

Abstract Recently, a new type of constant Fayet–Iliopoulos (FI) terms was introduced in $${\mathcal {N}}=1$$ N=1 supergravity, which do not require the gauging of the R-symmetry. We revisit and generalise these constructions, building a new class of Kähler invariant FI terms parametrised by a function of the gravitino mass as functional of the chiral superfields, which is then used to describe new models of inflation. They are based on a no-scale supergravity model of the inflaton chiral multiplet, supplemented by an abelian vector multiplet with the new FI-term. We show that the inflaton potential is compatible with the CMB observational data, with a vacuum energy at the minimum that can be tuned to a tiny positive value. Finally, the axionic shift symmetry can be gauged by the U(1) which becomes massive. These models offer a mechanism for fixing the gravitino mass in no-scale supergravities, that corresponds to a flat direction of the scalar potential in the absence of the new FI-term; its origin in string theory is an interesting open problem.