Trans-Planckian Censorship and Inflation in Grand Unified Theories

Abstract

The recently proposed trans-Planckian censorship conjecture (TCC) amounts to the claim that inflation models with an inflationary energy scale larger than Lambda_inf^max ~ 10^9 GeV belong to the swampland, i.e., cannot be embedded into a consistent theory of quantum gravity. In this paper, we point out that this constraint can be readily satisfied in D-term hybrid inflation (DHI), which is a well-motivated inflation scenario in the context of supersymmetric grand unification. In DHI, the amplitude of the primordial scalar power spectrum originates from a Fayet-Iliopoulos term of the order of the unification scale, sqrt{xi} ~ 10^16 GeV. At the same time, the TCC results in an upper bound on the corresponding gauge coupling constant of g_max ~ 10^-14. We are able to show that this constraint translates into an upper bound on the gravitino mass of m_3/2^max ~ 10 MeV, which opens the possibility that dark matter is accounted for by thermally produced gravitinos, if the reheating temperature is close to T_reh ~ 100 TeV. Interestingly enough, a somewhat similar gravitino mass range has recently been derived in a model that aims at explaining dark energy in terms of axion quintessence and resolving the Hubble tension by means of decaying gravitino dark matter.

10 pages. v2: additional paragraph on the weak-gravity conjecture, matches version published in PLB

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Cited by in corpus (14)

• Trans-Planckian censorship and other swampland bothers addressed in warm inflation
• The trans-Planckian censorship conjecture from the swampland distance conjecture
• Swampland Conjecture and Inflation Model from Brane Perspective
• Swampland, Trans-Planckian Censorship and Fine-Tuning Problem for Inflation: Tunnelling Wavefunction to the Rescue
• Brane inflation and Trans-Planckian censorship conjecture
• On the Trans-Planckian Censorship Conjecture and the Generalized Non-Minimal Coupling
• Model independent results for the inflationary epoch and the breaking of the degeneracy of models of inflation
• de Sitter Bubbles and the Swampland
• Lorentz violating inflation and the Swampland
• Supersymmetric Hybrid Inflation in Light of CMB Experiments and Swampland Conjectures
• Hitchhiker's Guide to the Swampland: The Cosmologist's Handbook to the string-theoretical Swampland Programme
• Trans-Planckian censorship constraints on properties and cosmological applications of axion-like fields
• Escape from the swamp with spectator
• Implications of single field inflation in general cosmological scenarios on the nature of dark energy given the swampland conjectures