P-term Potentials from 4-D Supergravity

Abstract

P-term inflation arises in some models of brane inflation. Within N=2 supersymmetry the scalar potential contains a vector of Fayet-Iliopoulos (FI) terms $\xi_i$. Depending on the direction of this vector it is possible to get D-term and F-term inflation or a mix of these models. In this paper we review the problems of embedding the P-term model in supergravity and show how these can be solved by considering the truncation from an N=2 theory to N=1. We show that with a simple gauging the scalar potential can include F-term or D-term parts but not both. The gauging can be altered so that both F-terms and D-terms containing FI constants can be included. In all cases we display the inflationary trajectory and, if it exists, the supersymmetric minimum.