Trapped Quintessential Inflation from Flux Compactifications

Abstract

Quintessential inflation is studied using a string modulus as the inflaton - quintessence field. It is assumed that the modulus crosses an enhanced symmetry point (ESP) in field space. Particle production at the ESP temporarily traps the modulus resulting in a period of inflation. After reheating, the modulus freezes due to cosmological friction at a large value, such that its scalar potential is dominated by contributions due to fluxes in the extra dimensions. The modulus remains frozen until the present, when it can become quintessence.