Towards Natural Inflation in String Theory

Abstract

We provide type IIB string embeddings of two axion variants of natural inflation. We use a combination of RR 2 form axions as the inflaton field and have its potential generated by non perturbative effects in the superpotential. Besides giving rise to inflation, the models developed take into account the stabilization of the compact space, both in the KKLT and large volume scenario regimes, an essential condition for any semi-realistic model of string inflation.

LaTeX, 1+26 pages, 2 figures; v2: added refs; v3: corrected a LaTeX problem, where v2 refs were compiled with v1 tex file