Inflationary Cosmology via Quantum Corrections in M-theory

TL;DR

This paper explores how quantum corrections in M-theory can induce inflationary expansion in the early universe, showing that classical solutions alone do not produce inflation.

Contribution

It demonstrates that quantum corrections to the effective M-theory action enable inflationary solutions, which are absent in classical supergravity.

Findings

Quantum corrections modify early-time solutions.

Inflation ends as curvature decreases.

Classical supergravity alone does not produce inflation.

Abstract

We investigate inflationary cosmology by solving the effective action of the M-theory, which consists of the 11 dimensional supergravity and quartic terms of the Weyl tensor. The metric is simply expressed by two scale factors, one for the spatial directions and the other for the internal directions. Since the effective action of the M-theory is constructed perturbatively, we also solve the equations of motion perturbatively. We will show that the classical solution of the 11 dimensional supergravity does not represent the inflationary expansion, but if we include the quantum corrections, the behavior of the solution around the very early time is modified and the inflationary scenario is realized. The inflation naturally ends when the scalar curvature becomes small and quartic terms of the Weyl tensor are negligible.