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Article
Two-field axion-monodromy hybrid inflation model: Dante's Waterfall
Physical Review D
  • Christopher D. Carone, William & Mary
  • Joshua Erlich, William & Mary
  • Anuraag Sensharma, William & Mary
  • Zhen Wang, William & Mary
Document Type
Article
Department/Program
Physics
Pub Date
1-1-2015
Abstract

We describe a hybrid axion-monodromy inflation model motivated by the Dante's Inferno scenario. In Dante's Inferno, a two-field potential features a stable trench along which a linear combination of the two fields slowly rolls, rendering the dynamics essentially identical to that of single-field chaotic inflation. A shift symmetry allows for the Lyth bound to be effectively evaded as in other axion-monodromy models. In our proposal, the potential is concave downward near the origin and the inflaton trajectory is a gradual downward spiral, ending at a point where the trench becomes unstable. There, the fields begin falling rapidly towards the minimum of the potential and inflation terminates as in a hybrid model. We find parameter choices that reproduce observed features of the cosmic microwave background, and discuss our model in light of recent results from the BICEP2 and Planck experiments.

DOI
10.1103/PhysRevD.91.043512
Citation Information
Christopher D. Carone, Joshua Erlich, Anuraag Sensharma and Zhen Wang. "Two-field axion-monodromy hybrid inflation model: Dante's Waterfall" Physical Review D Vol. 91 Iss. 4 (2015)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/christopher-carone/10/