String Cosmology

Abstract

A pedagogical introduction to aspects of string cosmology, including the landscape (BPBT) solution to the cosmological constant problem, brane-antibrane inflation, warped compactification, the KKLMMT model, the eta problem of SUGRA models, DBI inflation, Kahler modulus and racetrack inflation, the D3-D7 model, cosmic superstrings, and the problem of reheating. Also includes basic methods for phenomenology of multifield models with nonstandard kinetic terms.

arXiv comment47 pages, 17 figures; based on lectures given at Sheffield University Summer Institute, June 2006, and Les Houches Ecole de Physique, August 2006. Added references; fixed typos