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arXiv · 0808.0706

Gravity Waves and Linear Inflation from Axion Monodromy

Liam McAllister·Eva Silverstein·Alexander Westphal
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Abstract

Wrapped branes in string compactifications introduce a monodromy that extends the field range of individual closed-string axions to beyond the Planck scale. Furthermore, approximate shift symmetries of the system naturally control corrections to the axion potential. This suggests a general mechanism for chaotic inflation driven by monodromy-extended closed-string axions. We systematically analyze this possibility and show that the mechanism is compatible with moduli stabilization and can be realized in many types of compactifications, including warped Calabi-Yau manifolds and more general Ricci-curved spaces. In this broad class of models, the potential is linear in the canonical inflaton field, predicting a tensor to scalar ratio r=0.07 accessible to upcoming cosmic microwave background (CMB) observations.

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Liam McAllister, Eva Silverstein, Alexander Westphal. 2008-08-05. Gravity Waves and Linear Inflation from Axion Monodromy. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.82.046003

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