Accidental Inflation from K\"ahler Uplifting

We analyze the possibility of realizing inflation with a subsequent dS vacuum in the K\"ahler uplifting scenario. The inclusion of several quantum corrections to the 4d effective action evades previous no-go theorems and allows for construction of simple and successful models of string inflation. The predictions of several benchmark models are in accord with current observations, i.e., a red spectral index, negligible non-gaussianity, and spectral distortions similar to the simplest models of inflation. A particularly interesting subclass of models are "left-rolling" ones, where the overall volume of the compactified dimensions shrinks during inflation. We call this phenomenon "inflation by deflation" (IBD), where deflation refers to the internal manifold. This subclass has the appealing features of being insensitive to initial conditions, avoiding the overshooting problem, and allowing for observable running $\alpha$ ~ 0.012 and enhanced tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$ ~ $10^{-5}$. The latter results differ significantly from many string inflation models.