The Price of WMAP Inflation in Supergravity

Abstract

The three-year data from WMAP are in stunning agreement with the simplest possible quadratic potential for chaotic inflation, as well as with new or symmetry-breaking inflation. We investigate the possibilities for incorporating these potentials within supergravity, particularly of the no-scale type that is motivated by string theory. Models with inflation driven by the matter sector may be constructed in no-scale supergravity, if the moduli are assumed to be stabilised by some higher-scale dynamics and at the expense of some fine-tuning. We discuss specific scenarios for stabilising the moduli via either D- or F-terms in the effective potential, and survey possible inflationary models in the presence of D-term stabilisation.