In view of the most recent PLANCK+BICEP data, chaotic inflation based on a simple monomial potential, V(phi) ~ |phi|^p, remains as one of the most attractive inflationary scenarios capable of generating a sizeable tensor-to-scalar ratio. In the context of ordinary perturbative QFT, the power p in the inflaton potential is, however, restricted to positive integer values only, e.g., p = 2. Therefore, to realize fractional powers in the inflaton potential, such as p = 2/3 or p = 2/5, one conventionally has to resort to the mechanism of axion monodromy in string theory. As the speaker will demonstrate in this talk, this is not necessarily so. In fact, in field theory---or more precisely, in strongly coupled supersymmetric gauge theories---it surprisingly turns out to be possible to dynamically generate inflation potentials featuring an almost arbitrary fractional power via the effect of dimensional transmutation. This opens up the intriguing possibility that inflation might be nothing but a mere consequence of strong dynamics around the scale of grand unification. A precise determination of the inflationary CMB observables would then allow to directly pinpoint the gauge structure of the inflaton sector.
The seminar is free and open to all. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis.
