Inflation on Moduli Space and Cosmic Perturbations

Abstract

We show that a moduli space of the form predicted by string theory, lifted by supersymmetry breaking, gives rise to successful inflation for large regions of parameter space without any modification or fine tuning. This natural realization of inflation relies crucially on the complex nature of the moduli fields and the multiple points of enhanced symmetry, which are generic features of moduli space but not usually considered in inflationary model building. Our scenario predicts cosmic perturbations with an almost exactly flat spectrum for a wide range of scales with running on smaller, possibly observable, scales. The running takes the form of either an increasingly steep drop off of the spectrum, or a rise to a bump in the spectrum before an increasingly steep drop off.