Hybrid Inflation from Supergravity D Terms

We argue that the mass of the inflaton can be much smaller than the Hubble constant in supergravity models in which inflation is driven by D--terms and not F--terms. We investigate a supergravity toy model which leads to hybrid inflation due to an anomalous D--term. We show that the slow--roll condition can be satisfied and the correct magnitude for density perturbations can be obtained for some choice of model parameters. The kind of model considered can naturally arise in some string derived supergravity models.