Journal
JOURNAL OF HIGH ENERGY PHYSICS
Volume -, Issue 12, Pages -Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/JHEP12(2015)108
Keywords
Compactification and String Models; Cosmology of Theories beyond the SM; Models of Quantum Gravity
Categories
Funding
- Fundamental Laws Initiative of the Harvard Center for the Fundamental Laws of Nature
- NSF [PHY-1415548]
- National Science Foundation [DGE-1144152, PHYS-1066293]
- Division Of Physics
- Direct For Mathematical & Physical Scien [1415548] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Models of large-field inflation based on axion-like fields with shift symmetries can be simple and natural, and make a promising prediction of detectable primordial gravitational waves. The Weak Gravity Conjecture is known to constrain the simplest case in which a single compact axion descends from a gauge field in an extra dimension. We argue that the Weak Gravity Conjecture also constrains a variety of theories of multiple compact axions including N-flation and some alignment models. We show that other alignment models entail surprising consequences for how the mass spectrum of the theory varies across the axion moduli space, and hence can be excluded if further conjectures hold. In every case that we consider, plausible assumptions lead to field ranges that cannot be parametrically larger than M-Pl. Our results are strongly suggestive of a general inconsistency in models of large-field inflation based on compact axions, and possibly of a more general principle forbidding super-Planckian field ranges.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available