Inflation from High-Scale Supersymmetry Breaking

Supersymmetry breaking close to the scale of grand unification can explain cosmic inflation. As we demonstrate in this paper, this can be achieved in strongly coupled supersymmetric gauge theories, such that the energy scales of inflation and supersymmetry breaking are generated dynamically. As a consequence, both scales are related to each other and exponentially suppressed compared to the Planck scale. As an example, we consider a dynamical model in which gauging a global flavor symmetry in the supersymmetry-breaking sector gives rise to a Fayet-Iliopoulos D term. This results in successful D-term hybrid inflation in agreement with all theoretical and phenomenological constraints. The gauged flavor symmetry can be identified with U(1)_B-L, where B and L denote baryon and lepton number, respectively. In the end, we arrive at a consistent cosmological scenario that provides a unified picture of high-scale supersymmetry breaking, viable D-term hybrid inflation, spontaneous B-L breaking at the scale of grand unification, baryogenesis via leptogenesis, and standard model neutrino masses due to the type-I seesaw mechanism.