Inflation in Supergravity with a Single Chiral Superfield

TL;DR

This paper introduces supergravity models for chaotic inflation using a single chiral superfield, employing novel stabilization and potential crossing terms to achieve positive vacuum energy during inflation.

Contribution

It presents a new approach to single-superfield inflation models in supergravity, utilizing modified Kahler potentials and polynomial superpotentials for stable inflation.

Findings

Models successfully produce chaotic inflation scenarios.

Method allows for positive vacuum energy during inflation.

Applicable to broader supergravity inflation models.

Abstract

We propose new supergravity models describing chaotic Linde- and Starobinsky-like inflation in terms of a single chiral superfield. The key ideas to obtain a positive vacuum energy during large field inflation are (i) stabilization of the real or imaginary partner of the inflaton by modifying a Kahler potential, and (ii) use of the crossing terms in the scalar potential originating from a polynomial superpotential. Our inflationary models are constructed by starting from the minimal Kahler potential with a shift symmetry, and are extended to the no-scale case. Our methods can be applied to more general inflationary models in supergravity with only one chiral superfield.