Moduli Inflation with Large Scale Structure Produced by Topological Defects

Abstract

It is tempting to inflate along one of the many flat directions that arise in supersymmetric theories. The required flatness of the potential to obtain sufficient inflation and to not overproduce density fluctuations occurs naturally. However, the density perturbations (in the case of a single moduli field) that arise from inflaton quantum fluctuations are too small for structure formation. Here we propose that topological defects (such as cosmic strings), which arise during a phase transition near the end of moduli inflation can provide an alternative source of structure. The strings produced will be `fat', yet have the usual evolution by the time of nucleosynthesis. Possible models are discussed.