Spinflation and cycling branes in warped throats

TL;DR

This paper explores how brane motion in warped throats can induce cyclic cosmologies and spinflation, potentially leading to observable signatures in the cosmic microwave background.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of spinflation and analyzes brane dynamics in warped geometries from multiple observer perspectives.

Findings

Brane angular momentum can cause cosmological bounces and cyclic behavior.

Large angular momentum extends inflationary periods (spinflation).

Spinflaton fields may produce distinctive CMB signatures.

Abstract

The implications of brane motion in angular directions of Calabi-Yau flux compactifications are discussed from the point of view of an observer living on the worldvolume of the brane and from the point of view of an observer living elsewhere in the three non-compact dimensions. The brane observer can experience cosmological bounces and cyclic behavior of the scale factor induced by centrifugal angular momentum barriers. Observers living elsewhere in the compactification experience marginally prolonged periods of inflation due to large angular momentum (spinflation). The presence of spinflaton fields (or other fields with non-standard kinetic terms) during inflation may lead to interesting observational signatures in the cosmic microwave background radiation.