REVIEW
The Inflationary Brane-Antibrane Universe
High Energy Physics - Theory · Submitted 21 May 2001 · 21 references
Pith's verdict: Read it for the clean negative result in §2.4 and the quartic flat-point trick in §2.5, not for the 'computable potential' framing.
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Referee report
The paper
The paper claims
Brane-antibrane motion near a symmetric point of a compact torus gives a quartic potential flat enough for 60 e-folds, with spectral index n-1 = -3/N and a compactification scale near 10^12 GeV.
The reading
Extended reading notes
Core claim
Near the centre of a hypercubic torus cell the brane-antibrane potential has vanishing first and second derivatives (Eq. 2.18), so the leading term is quartic, V = A - (1/4)Cz^4 (Eq. 2.19). This makes slow roll automatic for small displacements, giving eta = -3 gamma (z/r_perp)^2 (Eq. 2.21), a spectral index n-1 = -3/N (Eq. 2.23), and, after COBE normalization, M_p r_perp = 1.3 x 10^6, i.e. r_perp^-1 = 10^12 GeV (Eq. 2.24). If correct, this is a working inflationary model whose potential is computed from string theory rather than assumed.
Load-bearing premise
Section 2.3 opens by assuming that all compactification moduli, including the transverse volume V_perp, the parallel volume V_parallel, the dilaton and the shape of the torus, are frozen by 'some unknown physics' and can be treated as fixed parameters during inflation. Every subsequent equation, including the 4D reduction of Eq. 2.7, the canonical normalization of Eq. 2.8, and the flatness of V(y) in Eq. 2.19, depends on this. If the volume or shape moduli roll on the same timescale as the inter-brane separation, the effective 4D potential is not the one computed here and the slow-roll analysis does not apply.
Original abstract
We show how the motion through the extra dimensions of a gas of branes and antibranes can, under certain circumstances, produce an era of inflation as seen by observers trapped on a 3-brane, with the inflaton being the inter-brane separation. Although most of our discussion refers to arbitrary p-branes, when we need to be specific we assume that they are D-branes of Type II or Type I string theory. For realistic brane couplings, such as those arising in string theory, the inter-brane potentials are too steep to inflate the universe for acceptably long times. However, for special regions of the parameter space of brane-antibrane positions the brane motion is slow enough for there to be sufficient inflation. Inflation would be more generic in models where the inter-brane interactions are much weaker. The spectrum of primordial density fluctuations predicted has index n slightly less than 1, and an acceptable amplitude, provided that the extra dimensions have linear size 1/r ~ 10^{12} GeV. Reheating occurs as in hybrid inflation, with the tachyonic instability of the brane-antibrane system taking over for small separations. The tachyon field can induce a cascade mechanism within which higher-dimension branes annihilate into lower-dimension ones. We argue that such a cascade naturally stops with the production of 3-branes in 10-dimensional string theory.
The compiled record
The paper's own sentences, arranged, kept beside the review and separate from it. Each label is drawn from a closed vocabulary; the number beside it is the probability the classifier gave that label. Numbers in the tables are the authors', checked by code. No sentence in this record was written by a model.
The abstract, sentence by sentence
We show how the motion through the extra dimensions of a gas of branes and antibranes can, under certain circumstances, produce an era of inflation as seen by observers trapped on a 3-brane, with the inflaton being the inter-brane separation. Although most of our discussion refers to arbitrary p-branes, when we need to be specific we assume that they are D-branes of Type II or Type I string theory. For realistic brane couplings, such as those arising in string theory, the inter-brane potentials are too steep to inflate the universe for acceptably long times. However, for special regions of the parameter space of brane-antibrane positions the brane motion is slow enough for there to be sufficient inflation. Inflation would be more generic in models where the inter-brane interactions are much weaker. The spectrum of primordial density fluctuations predicted has index n slightly less than 1, and an acceptable amplitude, provided that the extra dimensions have linear size 1/r ~ 10^{12} GeV. Reheating occurs as in hybrid inflation, with the tachyonic instability of the brane-antibrane system taking over for small separations. The tachyon field can induce a cascade mechanism within which higher-dimension branes annihilate into lower-dimension ones. We argue that such a cascade naturally stops with the production of 3-branes in 10-dimensional string theory.
background contribution method result interpretation main claim
| # | sentence | role | the authors' own work | states the main conclusion | strength |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| s0 | We show how the motion through the extra dimensions of a gas of branes and antibranes can, under certain circumstances, produce an era of inflation as seen by observers trapped on a 3-brane, with the inflaton being the inter-brane separation. | contribution 0.85 | 0.92 | 0.82 | asserted 0.86 |
| s1 | Although most of our discussion refers to arbitrary p-branes, when we need to be specific we assume that they are D-branes of Type II or Type I string theory. | method 0.59 | 0.26 | 0.03 | asserted 0.85 |
| s2 | For realistic brane couplings, such as those arising in string theory, the inter-brane potentials are too steep to inflate the universe for acceptably long times. | limitation 0.81 | 0.51 | 0.09 | asserted 1.00 |
| s3 | However, for special regions of the parameter space of brane-antibrane positions the brane motion is slow enough for there to be sufficient inflation. | result 0.78 | 0.72 | 0.16 | asserted 0.71 |
| s4 | Inflation would be more generic in models where the inter-brane interactions are much weaker. | interpretation 0.68 | 0.32 | 0.08 | hedged possibility 0.56 |
| s5 | The spectrum of primordial density fluctuations predicted has index n slightly less than 1, and an acceptable amplitude, provided that the extra dimensions have linear size 1/r ~ 10^{12} GeV. | result 1.00 | 0.84 | 0.12 | asserted 0.85 |
| s6 | Reheating occurs as in hybrid inflation, with the tachyonic instability of the brane-antibrane system taking over for small separations. | result 0.88 | 0.66 | 0.05 | asserted 1.00 |
| s7 | The tachyon field can induce a cascade mechanism within which higher-dimension branes annihilate into lower-dimension ones. | result 0.62 | 0.60 | 0.06 | hedged possibility 0.52 |
| s8 | We argue that such a cascade naturally stops with the production of 3-branes in 10-dimensional string theory. | interpretation 0.55 | 0.63 | 0.14 | hedged possibility 0.43 |
What was examined, and what was not
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Figures
Figures reproduced from arXiv:hep-th/0105204 by the authors.
References
How the literature uses it
93 arXiv papers cite this in 137 sentences
Papers citing it · 58 sentences without a confident label
Contests it 1 paper
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In this way we managed to avoid the $η$-problem and derived for the first time the inverse power-law potential originally proposed in [ref] , instead of the tuned inflection point inflation model of [ref] that is now in conflict with observations.
Back to the origins of brane-antibrane inflation · Conclusions · contest 0.81
Compares with it 2 papers
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As it turns out, this realisation of D3/D7 inflation suffers from a similar problem as the brane-antibrane proposal [ref] , i.e. the potential is too steep.
Fluxbranes: Moduli Stabilisation and Inflation · Introduction · 0.93
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In the opposite regime to Eq. [ref], i.e., [equation] during inflation, the kinetic coefficient of Eq. [ref] is approximated as constant, and the canonically normalized field $ψ$ is given by [equation] In the same way as the previous calculation, we can obtain the relation between the e-folding $N$ and the field value $ψ$ or $τ_2$, [equation] for $τ_2 ≫1$, and based on this, the inflationary observable $(n_s,r)$ are estimated as [equation] The CMB normalization fixes $V_0$ as [equation] Note that the potential form in Case II, \(V_J(ψ) ∼(1-𝒞/ψ)^2\), with a constant \(𝒞\), and hence its observational predictions [ref] and [ref] resemble those of the brane inflation scenario [ref] .
Higgs-Modular Inflation · Case II (Higgs-like) · 0.93
Cites it as support 1 paper
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However it is impossible to separate them by more than the size of the extra dimensions, so this does not work [ref] .
Fine-Tuning in Brane-antibrane Inflation · The flatness problem · 0.97
Cites it as background 66 papers
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In this paper, we will focus on one of the most well developed inflationary scenarios in string theory, i.e. $D$ brane inflation [ref] (see also Refs. [ref] ; for reviews, see Ref. [ref] and references therein), where the inflaton field is identified with the position of a space-filling mobile $D$ brane, usually a $D3$ brane, in a warped six dimensional manifold [ref] .
Systematics of multi-field effects at the end of warped brane inflation · Introduction · 0.94
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Historically, following the seminal paper [ref] , the first example of an inverse power-law potential in string cosmology has been actually proposed in the original formulation of brane-antibrane inflation which features $n=4$ [ref] .
Back to the origins of brane-antibrane inflation · Introduction · 0.90
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Brane-antibrane inflation [ref] is a particularly sharp example: unlike ordinary single-field models, where reheating is usually modeled by perturbative inflaton decay, D3/$D3$ inflation ends when the open string stretched between the brane and antibrane becomes tachyonic [ref] and the pair annihilates.
Fire at the Tip of the Throat: Hagedorn Phase after brane-antibrane inflation? · Introduction · 0.98
Discussion
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