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I describe a simple class of α-attractors, generalizing the single-field GL model of inflation in supergravity. The new class of models is defined for 0<α≲1, providing a good match to the present cosmological data. I also present a generalized version of these models which can describe not only inflation but also dark energy and supersymmetry breaking.
We discuss inflaton decays and reheating in no-scale Starobinsky-like models of inflation, calculating the effective equation-of-state parameter, w, during the epoch of inflaton decay, the reheating temperature, T{sub reh}, and the number of inflationary e-folds, N{sub ∗}, comparing analytical approximations with numerical calculations. We then illustrate these results with applications to models based on no-scale supergravity and motivated by generic string compactifications, including scenarios where the inflaton is identified as an untwisted-sector matter field with direct Yukawa couplings to MSSM fields, and where the inflaton decays via gravitational-strength interactions. Finally, we use our results to discuss the constraints on these models imposed by present measurements of the scalar spectral index n{sub s} and the tensor-to-scalar perturbation ratio r, converting them into constraints on N{sub ∗}, the inflaton decay rate and other parameters of specific no-scale inflationary models.
Supersymmetric theories, including the minimal supersymmetric standard model, usually contain many scalar fields whose potentials are absent in the exact supersymmetric limit and within the renormalizable level. Since their potentials are vulnerable to the finite energy density of the Universe through supergravity effects, these flat directions have nontrivial dynamics in the early Universe. Recently, we have pointed out that a flat direction may have a positive Hubble induced mass term during inflation whereas a negative one after inflation. In this case, the flat direction stays at the origin of the potential during inflation and then obtain a large vacuum expectation value after inflation. After that, when the Hubble parameter decreases down to the mass of the flat direction, it starts to oscillate around the origin of the potential. In this paper, we investigate the dynamics of the flat direction with and without higher dimensional superpotentials and show that topological defects, such as cosmic strings and domain walls, form at the end of inflation and disappear at the beginning of oscillation of the flat direction. We numerically calculate their gravitational signals and find that the observation of gravitational signals would give us information of supersymmetric scale, the reheating temperature of the Universe, and higher dimensional operators.
High-scale string inflationary models are in well-known tension with low-energy supersymmetry. A promising solution involves models where the inflaton is the volume of the extra dimensions so that the gravitino mass relaxes from large values during inflation to smaller values today. We describe a possible microscopic origin of the scalar potential of volume modulus inflation by exploiting non-perturbative effects, string loop and higher derivative perturbative corrections to the supergravity effective action together with contributions from anti-branes and charged hidden matter fields. We also analyse the relation between the size of the flux superpotential and the position of the late-time minimum and the inflection point around which inflation takes place. We perform a detailed study of the inflationary dynamics for a single modulus and a two moduli case where we also analyse the sensitivity of the cosmological observables on the choice of initial conditions.
At the two-derivative order, the group manifold reduction of heterotic supergravity on S 3 results in a half-maximal 7D gauged supergravity coupled to three vector multiplets, and a further truncation can be taken to remove the vector multiplets. We demonstrate that this truncation remains consistent at the four-derivative level; we do so both by analysis of the equations of motion and the supersymmetry variations.
Here, we examine the dependence of four-dimensional Euclidean N = 1 partition functions on coupling constants. In particular, we focus on backgrounds without R-symmetry, which arise in the rigid limit of old minimal supergravity. Backgrounds preserving a single supercharge may be classified as having either trivial or SU(2) structure, with the former including S 4 . We show that, in the absence of additional symmetries, the partition function depends non-trivially on all couplings in the trivial structure case, and (anti)-holomorphically on couplings in the SU(2) structure case. In both cases, this allows for ambiguities in the form of finite counterterms, which in principle render the partition function unphysical. However, we argue that on dimensional grounds, ambiguities are restricted to finite powers in relevant couplings, and can therefore be kept under control. On the other hand, for backgrounds preserving supercharges of opposite chiralities, the partition function is completely independent of all couplings. In this case, the background admits an R-symmetry, and the partition function is physical, in agreement with the results obtained in the rigid limit of new minimal supergravity. Based on a systematic analysis of supersymmetric invariants, we also demonstrate that N = 1 localization is not possible for backgrounds without R-symmetry.
Theories with approximate no-scale structure, such as the Large Volume Scenario, have a distinctive hierarchy of multiple mass scales in between TeV gaugino masses and the Planck scale, which we call SUSY's Ladder. This is a particular realization of Split Supersymmetry in which the same small parameter suppresses gaugino masses relative to scalar soft masses, scalar soft masses relative to the gravitino mass, and the UV cutoff or string scale relative to the Planck scale. This scenario has many phenomenologically interesting properties, and can avoid dangers including the gravitino problem, flavor problems, and the moduli-induced LSP problem that plague other supersymmetric theories. We study SUSY's Ladder using a superspace formalism that makes the mysterious cancelations in previous computations manifest. This opens the possibility of a consistent effective field theory understanding of the phenomenology of these scenarios, based on power-counting in the small ratio of string to Planck scales. We also show that four-dimensional theories with approximate no-scale structure enforced by a single volume modulus arise only from two special higher-dimensional theories: five-dimensional supergravity and ten-dimensional type IIB supergravity. As a result, this gives a phenomenological argument in favor of ten dimensional ultraviolet physics which is different from standard arguments based on the consistency of superstring theory.
In this note, we study 1/4- and 1/2-BPS co-dimension two superconformal defects in the 6d N = (2, 0) A N–1 SCFT at large N using their holographic descriptions as solutions of 11d supergravity. In this regime, we are able to compute the defect contribution to the sphere entanglement entropy and the change in the stress-energy tensor one-point function due to the presence of the defect using holography. From these quantities, we are then able to unambiguously compute the values for two of the twenty-nine total Weyl anomaly coefficients that characterize 4d conformal defects in six and higher dimensions. We are able to demonstrate the consistency of the supergravity description of the defect theories with the average null energy condition on the field theory side. For each class of defects that we consider, we also show that the A-type Weyl anomaly coefficient is non-negative. Lastly, we uncover and resolve a discrepancy between the on-shell action of the 7d 1/4-BPS domain wall solutions and that of their 11d uplift.
Here, we construct the first example of a superstratum: a class of smooth horizonless supergravity solutions that are parameterized by arbitrary continuous functions of (at least) two variables and have the same charges as the supersymmetric D1-D5-P black hole. We work in Type IIB string theory on T 4 or K 3 and our solutions involve a subset of fields that can be described by a six-dimensional supergravity with two tensor multiplets. The solutions can thus be constructed using a linear structure, and we give an explicit recipe to start from a superposition of modes specified by an arbitrary function of two variables and impose regularity to obtain the full horizonless solutions in closed form. We also give the precise CFT description of these solutions and show that they are not dual to descendants of chiral primaries. They are thus much more general than all the known solutions whose CFT dual is precisely understood. Hence our construction represents a substantial step toward the ultimate goal of constructing the fully generic superstratum that can account for a finite fraction of the entropy of the three-charge black hole in the regime of parameters where the classical black hole solution exists.
We analyze the BPS equations in the “superstratum sector” of three-dimensional gauged supergravity. We obtain multi-parameter supersymmetric solutions that include elliptical deformations of the supertubes that underlie standard superstrata. We uplift the three-dimensional solutions to obtain the corresponding six-dimensional geometries. This yields new families of elliptically-deformed, ambi-bolar hyper-Kahler geometries in four dimensions with a non-tri-holomorphic U(1) isometry. We also find a new family of scaling superstrata whose S-dual lives entirely within the NS-sector of supergravity, and will thus be more amenable to exact analysis using string probes. In all these new superstrata, including the scaling ones, if the momentum charge is non-zero we find that the ellipse stays away from the degeneration locus in which the ellipse becomes flat.
We argue that a type IIB Euclidean supergravity solution of the form $\mathbb{R}$ x S 1 x $\mathbb{T}$ 8 with imaginary self-dual F 1 flux through $\mathbb{R}$ x S 1 belongs to the chain of AdS d x S d x $\mathbb{T}$ 10-2d vacua with (imaginary) self-dual Fd flux, where d ≤ 5. Such vacua come from the near-horizon of D(d - 2)/D(8 - d) branes and are supersymmetric for odd values of d. For d = 1 we speculate that the hallmark of conformal symmetry for the matrix model dual is a vanishing free energy. The matrix dual was recently constructed by [1] by adding matrix interactions coming from strings stretching between the D(-1) and D7 branes to the IKKT matrix model. We find that the corresponding supergravity solution indeed has vanishing on-shell action. Specific F 5 fluxes need to be switched on as a consequence of (a T-dual version of) the Hanany-Witten effect.
We show the uniqueness of superpotentials leading to Minkowski vacua of single-field no-scale supergravity models, and the construction of dS/AdS solutions using pairs of these single-field Minkowski superpotentials. We then extend the construction to two- and multifield no-scale supergravity models, providing also a geometrical interpretation. We also consider scenarios with additional twisted or untwisted moduli fields, and discuss how inflationary models can be constructed in this framework.
We review a duality procedure that relates standard matter-coupled N=1 supergravity to dual formulations in which auxiliary fields are replaced by field-strengths of gauge three-forms. As examples, we consider the dualization of the rigid Polonyi model and of effective field theories associated with Type IIA string compactifications with fluxes in supergravity.
In this work, we describe general classes of 6D and 4D F-theory models with gauge group (SU(3)×SU(2)×U(1))/Z 6 . For 6D F-theory models with no tensor multiplets, we prove that this set of constructions gives all possible consistent supergravity theories with this gauge group and the corresponding generic matter representations, which include those of the MSSM. We expect, though do not prove, that these models are similarly generic for 6D theories with tensor multiplets and for 4D N=1 supergravity theories. Finally, the models in the largest class of these constructions come from deforming an underlying geometry with SU(4)×SU(3)×SU(2), corresponding to Higgsing on three bifundamental fields.
We find a class of new supersymmetric Euclidean solutions in four-dimensional maximal gauged supergravity. The holographic dual description of these backgrounds is given by a mass-deformation of the ABJM theory with general values for the R-charges. We calculate the S 3 free energy for the supergravity backgrounds and find agreement with the supersymmetric localization calculation of the free energy in the large N limit.
We test the gauge/gravity duality between the matrix model and type IIA string theory at low temperatures with unprecedented accuracy. To this end, we perform lattice Monte Carlo simulations of the Berenstein-Maldacena-Nastase (BMN) matrix model, which is the one-parameter deformation of the Banks-Fischler-Shenker-Susskind (BFSS) matrix model, taking both the large N and continuum limits. We leverage the fact that sufficiently small flux parameters in the BMN matrix model have a negligible impact on the energy of the system while stabilizing the flat directions so that simulations at smaller N than in the BFSS matrix model are possible. Hence, we can perform a precision measurement of the large N continuum energy at the lowest temperatures to date. The energy is in perfect agreement with supergravity predictions including estimations of α'-corrections from previous simulations. At the lowest temperature where we can simulate efficiently (T = 0.25λ 1/3 , where λ is the ’t Hooft coupling), the difference in energy to the pure supergravity prediction is less than 10%. Furthermore, we can extract the coefficient of the 1/N 4 corrections at a fixed temperature with good accuracy, which was previously unknown.
We compute the leading logarithmic correction to black hole entropy on the non-BPS branch of 4 D N ≥ 2 supergravity theories. This branch corresponds to finite temperature black holes whose extremal limit does not preserve supersymmetry, such as the D0 – D6 system in string theory. Starting from a black hole in minimal Kaluza-Klein theory, we discuss in detail its embedding into N = 8, 6, 4, 2 supergravity, its spectrum of quadratic fluctuations in all these environments, and the resulting quantum corrections. We find that the c-anomaly vanishes only when N ≥ 6, in contrast to the BPS branch where c vanishes for all N ≥ 2. We briefly discuss potential repercussions this feature could have in a microscopic description of these black holes.
We find the holographic dual to the three classes of superconformal Janus interfaces in N = 4 SYM that preserve three-dimensional N = 4, N = 2, and N = 1 supersymmetry. The solutions are constructed in five-dimensional SO(6) maximal gauged supergravity and are then uplifted to type IIB supergravity. Corresponding to each of the three classes of Janus solutions, there are also AdS 4 × S 1 × S 5 J-fold backgrounds. These J-folds have a non-trivial SL(2, Z) monodromy for the axio-dilaton on the S 1 and are dual to three dimensional superconformal field theories.