Journal of High Energy Physics (Jul 2024)

Loop blow-up inflation

  • Sukṛti Bansal,
  • Luca Brunelli,
  • Michele Cicoli,
  • Arthur Hebecker,
  • Ruben Kuespert

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP07(2024)289
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 2024, no. 7
pp. 1 – 40

Abstract

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Abstract We present a new model of string inflation driven by a blow-up Kähler modulus of type IIb compactifications with a potential generated by string loops. Slow-roll is naturally realized thanks to the fact that the blow-up mode is a leading-order flat direction lifted by string loops which are unavoidable and generate a plateau at large field values. We check that throughout the whole inflationary dynamics the effective field theory is under control. We perform a phenomenological analysis determining the exact number of efoldings by studying the post-inflationary evolution. We determine the values of the microscopic parameters which lead to agreement with CMB data, together with the prediction of a tensor-to-scalar ratio of order r ∼ 10 −5.

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