Polynomial Chaotic Inflation in Supergravity

TL;DR

This paper develops a polynomial chaotic inflation model within supergravity that aligns with Planck data, predicts observable tensor-to-scalar ratios, and discusses reheating and gravitino production.

Contribution

It introduces a new polynomial chaotic inflation model in supergravity with predictions compatible with current observations and explores reheating and gravitino suppression mechanisms.

Findings

Predicted spectral index and tensor-to-scalar ratio fit Planck data.

Tensor-to-scalar ratio is large enough for future B-mode detection.

Reheating temperature can reach 10^{9-10} GeV, enabling leptogenesis.

Abstract

We present a general polynomial chaotic inflation model in supergravity, for which the predicted spectral index and tensor-to-scalar ratio can lie within the 1 sigma region allowed by the Planck results. Most importantly, the predicted tensor-to-scalar ratio is large enough to be probed in the on-going and future B-mode experiments. We study the inflaton dynamics and the subsequent reheating process in a couple of specific examples. The non-thermal gravitino production from the inflaton decay can be suppressed in a case with a discrete Z_2 symmetry. We find that the reheating temperature can be naturally as high as O(10^{9-10}) GeV, sufficient for baryon asymmetry generation through (non-)thermal leptogenesis.