Inflation from Supersymmetry Breaking

Abstract

I discuss the possibility that inflation is driven by supersymmetry breaking, with the superpartner of the goldstino (sgoldstino) playing the role of the inflaton. Imposing an R-symmetry to satisfy the slow-roll conditions, avoiding the so-called η -problem, leads to an interesting class of small field inflation models, characterised by an inflationary plateau around the maximum of scalar potential near the origin, where R-symmetry is restored with the inflaton rolling down to a minimum, describing the present phase of the Universe. Inflation can be driven by either an F- or a D-term, while the minimum has a positive tuneable vacuum energy. The models agree with cosmological observations and, in the simplest case, predict a rather small tensor-to-scalar ratio of primordial perturbations. This talk is an extended version of an earlier review (Antoniadis, 2018).