Realizations of hybrid inflation in supergravity with natural initial conditions

Abstract

We present viable F-term realizations of the hybrid inflationary scenario in the context of supergravity addressing at the same time the well-known problems of the initial conditions and of the adequate suppression of the inflaton mass. An essential role in our construction is played by "decoupled" superheavy fields without superpotential acquiring large vevs due to D-terms associated with "anomalous" U(1) gauge symmetries. The naturalness of the initial conditions is achieved through a "chaotic" inflation starting at energies close to the Planck scale and driven by the "anomalous" D-terms. We discuss two distinct mechanisms leading to such an early "chaotic" D-term inflation which depend on the choice of the K\"ahler potential involving the superheavy fields. The one relies on a choice of the K\"ahler potential of the $SU(1,1)/U(1)$ K\"ahler manifold of the type encountered in no-scale supergravity whereas the other employs a more "conventional" choice for the K\"ahler potential of the $SU(1,1)/U(1)$ or $SU(2)/U(1)$ K\"ahler manifold but invokes rather specific valuesof the Fayet-Iliopoulos $\xi$ term.