Inflation and moduli backreaction in string-effective supergravities

October 19, 2015
2:00am

IFT Seminar Room/Red Room

Specialist level
Speaker: 
Clemens Wieck
Institution: 
IFT-UAM/CSIC
Location&Place: 

IFT Seminar Room/Red Room

Abstract: 

In the framework of N = 1 supergravity we study the effects of heavy scalar fields during inflation. These can be geometric moduli from string theory compactifications or stabilizer fields from a different sector of the theory. Even when these fields are heavier than the Hubble scale during inflation, they generically cause backreactions which alter the dynamics of the system. Severe problems may arise when the heavy fields break supersymmetry, which is quite generic for Kähler moduli, for example. We illustrate these effects in two examples, chaotic inflation and Starobinsky-like inflation.