Single-Superfield Helical-Phase Inflation

Abstract: Large-field inflation in supergravity requires the approximate global symmetry needed to protect flatness of the scalar potential. In helical-phase inflation, the U(1) symmetry of the Kahler potential is assumed, the phase part of the complex scalar of a chiral superfield plays the role of inflaton, and the radial part is strongly stabilized. The original model of helical phase inflation, proposed by Li, Li and Nanopoulos (LLN), employs an extra (stabilizer) superfield. We propose a more economical new class of the helical phase inflationary models without a stabilizer superfield. As the specific examples, the quadratic, the natural, and the Starobinsky-type inflationary models are studied in our approach.