Supergravity Modification of D-term Hybrid Inflation: Solving the Cosmic String and Spectral Index Problems via a Right-Handed Sneutrino

Supergravity corrections due to the energy density of a right-handed sneutrino can generate a negative mass squared for the inflaton, flattening the inflaton potential and reducing the spectral index and inflaton energy density. For the case of D-term hybrid inflation, we show that the spectral index can be lowered from the conventional value n = 0.98 to a value within the range allowed by the latest WMAP analysis, n = 0.951^{+0.015}_{-0.019}. The modified energy density is consistent with non-observation of cosmic strings in the CMB if n < 0.946. The WMAP lower bound on the spectral index implies that the D-term cosmic string contribution may be very close present CMB limits, contributing at least 5% to the CMB multipoles.