The powers of monodromy

McAllister, Liam; Wrase, Timm; Silverstein, Eva; Westphal, Alexander

doi:10.1007/JHEP09(2014)123

Journal Article

PUBDB-2014-03883

The powers of monodromy

McAllister, L. (Corresponding Author) ; Silverstein, E. (Corresponding author) ; Westphal, A. (Corresponding author)DESY* ; Wrase, T. (Corresponding author)

2014
Springer Berlin

Journal of high energy physics 2014(9), 123 (2014) [10.1007/JHEP09(2014)123]

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Please use a persistent id in citations: doi:10.1007/JHEP09(2014)123

Report No.: DESY-14-078; SLAC-PUB-15962; SU/ITP-14/13; arXiv:1405.3652

Abstract: Flux couplings to string theory axions yield super-Planckian field ranges along which the axion potential energy grows. At the same time, other aspects of the physics remain essentially unchanged along these large displacements, respecting a discrete shift symmetry with a sub-Planckian period. After a general overview of this monodromy effect and its application to large-field inflation, we present new classes of specific models of monodromy inflation, with monomial potentials μ$^{4−}^{p}$ ϕ$^{p}$ . A key simplification in these models is that the inflaton potential energy plays a leading role in moduli stabilization during inflation. The resulting inflaton-dependent shifts in the moduli fields lead to an effective flattening of the inflaton potential, i.e. a reduction of the exponent from a fiducial value p$_{0}$ to p < p$_{0}$. We focus on examples arising in compactifications of type IIB string theory on products of tori or Riemann surfaces, where the inflaton descends from the NS-NS two-form potential B$_{2}$, with monodromy induced by a coupling to the R-R field strength F$_{1}$. In this setting we exhibit models with p = 2/3, 4/3, 2, and 3, corresponding to predictions for the tensor-to-scalar ratio of r ≈ 0.04, 0.09, 0.13, and 0.2, respectively. Using mirror symmetry, we also motivate a second class of examples with the role of the axions played by the real parts of complex structure moduli, with fluxes inducing monodromy.

Keyword(s): Cosmology of Theories beyond the SM (LCSH) ; Flux compactifications (LCSH) ; inflaton: potential ; potential: energy ; axion: potential ; moduli: stability ; axion: yield ; symmetry: mirror ; monodromy ; inflation ; string model ; compactification ; Riemann surface ; field strength ; torus ; flux ; 4/3 ; string: coupling ; space: Calabi-Yau ; T-duality ; simplex ; moduli space