Little Inflatons and Gauge Inflation

We investigate characteristic features of realistic parameter choice for primordial inflation with supersymmetric Higgs inflaton as an example of particle physics inflation model. We discuss constraints from observational results and analyze the degree of fine tuning needed to induce slow-roll inflation for wide range of soft supersymmetry breaking scale. The observed amplitude of density fluctuations implies that the minimal fine tuning for the combined electroweak scale and...

We clarify classical inflaton models by considering them as effective field theories `a la Ginzburg-Landau. In this approach, the WMAP statement excluding the pure phi^4 potential implies the presence of an inflaton mass term at the scale m ~ 10^{13}GeV.Chaotic, new and hybrid inflation models are studied in an unified manner.In all cases the inflaton potential takes the form V(phi)=m^2 M_{Pl}^2 v(phi/M_{Pl}), where all coefficients in v(varphi) are of order one.If such poten...

We extend a recently proposed framework, dubbed inflation by supersymmetry breaking, to hybrid inflation by introducing a waterfall field that allows to decouple the supersymmetry breaking scale in the observable sector from the inflation scale, while keeping intact the inflation sector and its successful predictions: naturally small slow-roll parameters, small field initial conditions and absence of the pseudo-scalar companion of the inflaton, in terms of one free parameter ...

The theory of inflation will be investigated as well as supersymmetry breaking in the context of supergravity, incorporating the target-space duality and the nonperturbative gaugino condensation in the hidden sector. We found an inflationary trajectory of a dilaton field and a condensate field which breaks supersymmetry at once. The model satisfies the slow-roll condition which solves the eta-problem. When the particle rolls down along the minimized trajectory of the potentia...

In this talk, I present the minimal classically scale-invariant and $CP$-symmetric extension of the standard model, containing one additional complex gauge singlet and three flavors of right-handed Majorana neutrinos, incorporated within a renormalizable framework of gravity, consistent with these symmetries; the Agravity. I particularly focus on the slow-roll inflationary paradigm within this framework, by identifying the pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson of the (approximate) sca...

Non-abelian discrete gauge symmetries can provide the inflaton with a flat potential even when one takes into account gravitational strength effects. The discreteness of the symmetries also provide special field values where inflation can end via a hybrid type mechanism. An interesting feature of this method is that it can naturally lead to extremely flat potentials and so, in principle, to inflation at unusually low energy scales. Two examples of effective field theories wit...

The large hierarchy between the Planck scale and the weak scale can be explained by the dynamical breaking of supersymmetry in strongly coupled gauge theories. Similarly, the hierarchy between the Planck scale and the energy scale of inflation may also originate from strong dynamics, which dynamically generate the inflaton potential. We present a model of the hidden sector which unifies these two ideas, i.e., in which the scales of inflation and supersymmetry breaking are pro...

We propose a variant of hybrid inflation which is applicable in a wide class of supersymmetric grand unified models. The observed temperature perturbations of cosmic background radiation can be reproduced with natural values of the parameters of the theory and a grand unification scale which is consistent with the unification of the minimal supersymmetric standard model gauge couplings as measured at LEP. The termination of inflation is smooth and does not produce any topolog...

In this brief review we will discuss how a well motivated particle theory beyond the eletroweak Standard Model provides ingredients and conditions for a successful inflation. We will mainly focus on a low energy supersymmetric Standard Model which provides plenty of scalars. In particular, these scalars span a multidimensional moduli space of {\it gauge invariant} operators which carry the Standard Model charges. The inflationary predictions which matches the current observat...

In this talk we discuss a model of inflation based on a simple variant of the NMSSM, called $\phi$NMSSM \cite{phiNMSSM}, where the additional singlet $\phi$ plays the role of the inflaton in hybrid (or inverted hybrid) type models. As in the original NMSSM, the $\phi$NMSSM solves the $\mu$ problem of the MSSM via the VEV of a gauge singlet $N$, but unlike the NMSSM does not suffer from domain wall problems since the offending $Z_3$ symmetry is replaced by an approximate Pecce...