Quintessence and Inflation from Symmetry Breaking Transition of the Internal Manifold

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that shape moduli in pure Kaluza-Klein gravity can naturally generate potentials for inflation and quintessence, linking symmetry breaking to geometric properties and achieving cosmological goals without fine tuning.

Contribution

It introduces a novel mechanism where shape moduli drive inflation and quintessence within a simple Kaluza-Klein framework, connecting geometric symmetry breaking to cosmological phenomena.

Findings

Potential supports inflation and quintessence

Achieves sufficient e-foldings without fine tuning

Maintains constraints from fine structure constant

Abstract

We show that even in the simple framework of pure Kaluza-Klein gravity the shape moduli can generate potentials supporting inflation and/or quintessence. Using the shape moduli as the inflaton or quintessence-field has the additional benefit of being able to explain symmetry breaking in a natural geometric way. A numerical analysis suggests that in these models it may be possible to obtain sufficient e-foldings during inflation as well as a small cosmological constant at the current epoch (without fine tuning), while preserving the constraint coming from the fine structure constant.