Exponential potential for an inflaton with nonminimal kinetic coupling and its supergravity embedding

Abstract

In the light of new observational results, we discuss the status of the exponential potentials driving inflation. We depart from the minimal scenario and study an inflaton kinetically coupled to the Einstein tensor. We find that in this case, the exponential potentials are well compatible with observations. Their predictions coincide with those of the chaotic-type quadratic potential for an inflaton minimally coupled to gravity. We show that there exists a simple mapping between the two models. Moreover, a novel aspect of our model is that it features a natural exit from the inflationary phase even in the absence of a minimum. We also turn to supergravity and motivate this sort of potential and the nonminimal kinetic coupling as possible effective dilaton theories.