TY - EJOUR AU - Broy, Benedict AU - Ciupke, David AU - Pedro, Francisco G. AU - Westphal, Alexander TI - Starobinsky-Type Inflation from α′-Corrections IS - IFT-UAM/CSIC-15-093 M1 - PUBDB-2015-03906 M1 - IFT-UAM/CSIC-15-093 M1 - DESY-15-166 PY - 2015 AB - Working in the Large Volume Scenario (LVS) of IIB Calabi-Yau flux compactifications, we construct inflationary models from recently computed higher derivative (α′)<sup>3</sup>-corrections. Inflation is driven by a Kaehler modulus whose potential arises from the aforementioned corrections, while we use the inclusion of string loop effects just to ensure the existence of a graceful exit when necessary. The effective inflaton potential takes a Starobinsky-type form V=V<sub>0</sub>(1−e<sup>−νϕ</sup>)<sup>2</sup>, where we obtain one set-up with ν = −1/√3 and one with ν = 2/√3 corresponding to inflation occurring for increasing or decreasing ϕ respectively. The inflationary observables are thus in perfect agreement with PLANCK, while the two scenarios remain observationally distinguishable via slightly varying predictions for the tensor-to-scalar ratio r. Both set-ups yield r ≅ (2…7) ×10<sup>−3</sup>. They hence realise inflation with moderately large fields (∆ϕ ∼ 6\thinspace M<sub>Pl</sub>) without saturating the Lyth bound. Control over higher corrections relies in part on tuning underlying microscopic parameters, and in part on intrinsic suppressions. The intrinsic part of control arises as a leftover from an approximate effective shift symmetry at parametrically large volume. LB - PUB:(DE-HGF)25 ; PUB:(DE-HGF)29 UR - https://bib-pubdb1.desy.de/record/275279 ER -