Higher order corrections to Heterotic M-theory inflation

TL;DR

This paper explores how higher order corrections affect inflation driven by multiple five-branes in Heterotic M-theory, revealing constraints on the number of branes needed for successful inflation.

Contribution

It introduces a simple class of higher order corrections to the scalar potential, providing new bounds on the number of branes for inflation in Heterotic M-theory.

Findings

Higher order corrections significantly impact inflation dynamics.

Constraints on the number of branes for successful inflation.

Leading order maps to power law inflation, but corrections modify this picture.

Abstract

We investigate inflation driven by $N$ dynamical five-branes in Heterotic M-theory using the scalar potential derived from the open membrane instanton sector. At leading order the resulting theory can be mapped to power law inflation, however more generally one may expect higher order corrections to be important. We consider a simple class of such corrections, which imposes tight bounds on the number of branes required for inflation.