Monodromy Inflation in SUSY QCD

TL;DR

This paper explores monodromy inflation within SUSY QCD, addressing its potential to produce large tensor-to-scalar ratios and discussing the challenges in constructing viable models.

Contribution

It demonstrates how monodromy inflation can be realized in SUSY QCD, providing insights into model building and associated difficulties.

Findings

Identifies conditions for successful inflation in SUSY QCD

Highlights challenges like tunneling and tuning in model construction

Discusses implications for large tensor-to-scalar ratios

Abstract

The discovery of a large tensor-to-scalar ratio by the BICEP2 experiment points to large field excursions during inflation. One framework that predicts large $r$ is monodromy inflation. While discussed mainly in the context of string theory, the phenomenon can be illustrated and studied in the well-understood framework of SUSY QCD with a large number of colors. We discuss the requirements for viable inflation as well as various difficulties for model building, including tunneling, tuning, and the species problem.