Affleck-Dine Sneutrino Inflation

TL;DR

This paper proposes a supergravity model where right-handed sneutrino fields serve as the inflaton, linking inflation, neutrino masses, and baryogenesis through the Affleck-Dine mechanism, with a potential detectable tensor-to-scalar ratio.

Contribution

It introduces a novel supergravity framework connecting sneutrino inflation with leptogenesis and baryogenesis, incorporating CP-violation and supersymmetry breaking effects.

Findings

Inflaton potential is flatter than quadratic chaotic inflation.

The model predicts a measurable tensor-to-scalar ratio.

Lepton asymmetry generated via the Affleck-Dine mechanism can explain baryon asymmetry.

Abstract

Motivated by the coincidence between the Hubble scale during inflation and the typical see-saw neutrino mass scale, we present a supergravity model where the inflaton is identified with a linear combination of right-handed sneutrino fields. The model accommodates an inflaton potential that is flatter than quadratic chaotic inflation, resulting in a measurable but not yet ruled out tensor-to-scalar ratio. Small CP-violation in the neutrino mass matrix and supersymmetry breaking yield an evolution in the complex plane for the sneutrino fields. This induces a net lepton charge that, via the Affleck-Dine mechanism, can be the origin of the observed baryon asymmetry of the universe.