The Volkov-Akulov-Starobinsky supergravity

We construct a supergravity model whose scalar degrees of freedom arise from a chiral superfield and are solely a scalaron and an axion that is very heavy during the inflationary phase. The model includes a second chiral superfield X, which is subject however to the constraint X-2 = 0 so that it describes only a Volkov-Akulov goldstino and an auxiliary field. We also construct the dual higher-derivative model, which rests on a chiral scalar curvature superfield R. subject to the constraint R-2 = 0, where the goldstino dual arises from the gauge-invariant gravitino field strength as gamma D-mn(m)psi(n). The final bosonic action is an R + R-2 theory involving an axial vector Am that only propagates a physical pseudoscalar mode. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.