Les Houches lectures on inflationary observables and string theory
arXiv:1311.2312
Abstract
These lectures cover the theoretical structure and phenomenology of some basic mechanisms for inflation. A full treatment of the problem requires `ultraviolet completion' because of the sensitivity of inflation to quantum gravity effects, while the observables are elegantly parameterized using low energy field theory. String theory provides novel mechanisms for inflation, some subject to significant observational tests, with highly UV-sensitive tensor mode measurements being a prime example. Although the ultraviolet completion is not directly accessible experimentally, some of these mechanisms have helped stimulate a more systematic analysis of the space of low energy theories and signatures relevant for data analysis, including searches for non-Gaussianity and additional structure in the power spectrum. We include a pedagogical overview of string compactifications, with a focus on candidate inflatons and their symmetry structure. In the last lecture we attack the problem of thought-experimental observables in inflation, developing a generalization of gauge-gravity duality that relies on the structure of the scalar potential in string theory.
40 pages, 1 figure
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Cited by in corpus (10)
- de Sitter Vacua in Type IIB String Theory: Classical Solutions and Quantum Corrections
- Drifting Oscillations in Axion Monodromy
- Higgs-otic Inflation and String Theory
- Moduli Vacuum Misalignment and Precise Predictions in String Inflation
- Effective models of inflation from a non-local framework
- Inflationary Predictions and Moduli Masses
- Inflation with a graceful exit in a random landscape
- Chaotic inflation with curvaton induced running
- Inflation in string theory confronts data/Les modèles d'inflation en théorie des cordes face aux observations
- De Sitter Vacua from a D-term Generated Racetrack Uplift