ISS-flation

TL;DR

This paper investigates a novel inflationary scenario within supersymmetric QCD, where inflation occurs during a transition to a metastable vacuum, potentially producing observable non-gaussianities due to symmetry breaking at the end.

Contribution

It introduces a new model of inflation linked to metastable supersymmetry breaking and analyzes conditions for slow-roll inflation and its observational signatures.

Findings

Inflation can occur during the transition to a metastable vacuum.

Spontaneous symmetry breaking at inflation's end may produce observable non-gaussianities.

The model links inflation dynamics with supersymmetry-breaking vacua.

Abstract

Inflation may occur while rolling into the metastable supersymmetry-breaking vacuum of massive supersymmetric QCD. We explore the range of parameters in which slow-roll inflation and long-lived metastable supersymmetry breaking may be simultaneously realized. The end of slow-roll inflation in this context coincides with the spontaneous breaking of a global symmetry, which may give rise to significant curvature perturbations via inhomogenous preheating. Such spontaneous symmetry breaking at the end of inflation may give rise to observable non-gaussianities, distinguishing this scenario from more conventional models of supersymmetric hybrid inflation.