Boundary inflation in the moduli space approximation

Abstract

The evolution of slow--roll inflation in a five--dimensional brane world model with two boundary branes and bulk scalar field is studied. Assuming that the inflationary scale is below the brane tension, we can employ the moduli space approximation to study the dynamics of the system. Detuning the brane tension results in a potential for the moduli fields which we show will not support a period of slow--roll inflation. We then study an inflaton field, confined to the positive tension brane, to which the moduli fields are non--minimally coupled. We discuss in detail the two cases of $V(\chi) = {1/2} m^2 \chi^2$ and $V(\chi) = \lambda \chi^4$ and demonstrate that increasing the coupling results in spectra which are further away from scale--invariance and in an increase in the tensor mode production, while entropy perturbations are subdominant. Finally, we point out that the five--dimensional spacetime is unstable during inflation because the negative tension brane collapses.