Helical Phase Inflation and Monodromy in Supergravity Theory

Journal Article · Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2015 · Advances in High Energy Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1155/2015/397410· OSTI ID:1228449

Li, Tianjun ^[1]; Li, Zhijin ^[2]; Nanopoulos, Dimitri V. ^[3]

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1. State Key Laboratory of Theoretical Physics and Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics China (KITPC), Institute of Theoretical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China, School of Physical Electronics, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China
2. George P. and Cynthia W. Mitchell Institute for Fundamental Physics and Astronomy, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA
3. George P. and Cynthia W. Mitchell Institute for Fundamental Physics and Astronomy, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA, Astroparticle Physics Group, Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC), Mitchell Campus, The Woodlands, TX 77381, USA, Division of Natural Sciences, Academy of Athens, 28 Panepistimiou Avenue, 10679 Athens, Greece

We study helical phase inflation which realizes “monodromy inflation” in supergravity theory. In the model, inflation is driven by the phase component of a complex field whose potential possesses helicoid structure. We construct phase monodromy based on explicitly breaking global $U\left(1\right)$ symmetry in the superpotential. By integrating out heavy fields, the phase monodromy from single complex scalar field is realized and the model fulfills natural inflation. The phase-axion alignment is achieved from explicitly symmetry breaking and gives super-Planckian phase decay constant. The $F$ -term scalar potential provides strong field stabilization for all the scalars except inflaton, which is protected by the approximate global $U\left(1\right)$ symmetry. Besides, we show that helical phase inflation can be naturally realized in no-scale supergravity with $SU\left(\mathrm{2,1}\right)/SU\left(2\right)\times U\left(1\right)$ symmetry since the supergravity setup needed for phase monodromy is automatically provided in the no-scale Kähler potential. We also demonstrate that helical phase inflation can be reduced to another well-known supergravity inflation model with shift symmetry. Helical phase inflation is free from the UV-sensitivity problem although there is super-Planckian field excursion, and it suggests that inflation can be effectively studied based on supersymmetric field theory while a UV-completed framework is not prerequisite.

• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• Grant/Contract Number: FG03-95-ER-40917
• OSTI ID: 1228449
• Journal Information: Advances in High Energy Physics, Journal Name: Advances in High Energy Physics Vol. 2015; ISSN 1687-7357
• Publisher: Hindawi Publishing Corporation
• Country of Publication: Egypt
• Language: English