String moduli inflation: an overview

Abstract

We present an overview of inflationary models derived from string theory focusing mostly on closed string moduli as inflatons. After a detailed discussion of the η-problem and different approaches to address it, we describe possible ways to obtain a de Sitter vacuum with all closed string moduli stabilized. We then look for inflationary directions and present some of the most promising scenarios where the inflatons are either the real or the imaginary part of Kähler moduli. We pay particular attention on extracting potential observable implications, showing how most of the scenarios predict negligible gravitational waves and could therefore be ruled out by the Planck satellite. We conclude by briefly mentioning some open challenges in string cosmology beyond deriving just inflation.