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Weak gravity strongly constrains large-field axion inflation

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  • Published: 16 December 2015
  • Volume 2015, pages 1–41, (2015)
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Weak gravity strongly constrains large-field axion inflation
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  • Ben Heidenreich1,
  • Matthew Reece1 &
  • Tom Rudelius1 

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A preprint version of the article is available at arXiv.

Abstract

Models of large-field inflation based on axion-like fields with shift symmetries can be simple and natural, and make a promising prediction of detectable primordial gravitational waves. The Weak Gravity Conjecture is known to constrain the simplest case in which a single compact axion descends from a gauge field in an extra dimension. We argue that the Weak Gravity Conjecture also constrains a variety of theories of multiple compact axions including N-flation and some alignment models. We show that other alignment models entail surprising consequences for how the mass spectrum of the theory varies across the axion moduli space, and hence can be excluded if further conjectures hold. In every case that we consider, plausible assumptions lead to field ranges that cannot be parametrically larger than M Pl. Our results are strongly suggestive of a general inconsistency in models of large-field inflation based on compact axions, and possibly of a more general principle forbidding super-Planckian field ranges.

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  1. Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, U.S.A.

    Ben Heidenreich, Matthew Reece & Tom Rudelius

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  1. Ben Heidenreich
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Heidenreich, B., Reece, M. & Rudelius, T. Weak gravity strongly constrains large-field axion inflation. J. High Energ. Phys. 2015, 1–41 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP12(2015)108

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  • Received: 16 October 2015

  • Accepted: 08 December 2015

  • Published: 16 December 2015

  • Issue Date: December 2015

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP12(2015)108

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Keywords

  • Compactification and String Models
  • Cosmology of Theories beyond the SM
  • Models of Quantum Gravity
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