Chaotic Inflation in Supergravity after Planck and BICEP2

TL;DR

This paper explores how simple chaotic inflation models within supergravity can be adjusted to match recent observational data, producing detectable tensor modes and suppressing large-scale CMB power.

Contribution

It demonstrates minimal modifications to quadratic potentials in supergravity can yield observable tensor modes and align with Planck 2013 and BICEP2 data.

Findings

Modified quadratic potentials produce tensor modes consistent with observations.

Adjustments suppress large-scale CMB power.

Models remain theoretically controllable and consistent with data.

Abstract

We discuss the general structure and observational consequences of some of the simplest versions of chaotic inflation in supergravity in relation to the data by Planck 2013 and BICEP2. We show that minimal modifications to the simplest quadratic potential are sufficient to provide a controllable tensor mode signal and a suppression of CMB power at large angular scales.