On climbing scalars in String Theory

In string models with brane supersymmetry breaking exponential potentials emerge at (closed-string) tree level but are not accompanied by tachyons Potentials of this type have long been a source of embarrassment in flat space but can have interesting implications for Cosmology For instance in ten dimensions the logarithmic slope vertical bar V'/V vertical bar lies precisely at a critical value where the Lucchin-Matarrese attractor disappears while the scalar field is forced to climb up the potential when it emerges from the Big Bang This type of behavior is in principle perturbative in the string coupling persists after compactification could have trapped scalar fields inside potential wells as a result of the cosmological evolution and could have also injected the inflationary phase of our Universe (C) 2010 Elsevier B V All rights reserved