Oscillations in the CMB from Axion Monodromy Inflation (2009)
Flauger, Raphael, McAllister, Liam, Pajer, Enrico, Westphal, Alexander, Xu, Gang
We study the CMB observables in axion monodromy inflation. These well-motivated scenarios for inflation in string theory have monomial potentials over super-Planckian field ranges, with superimposed...
Advances in Inflation in String Theory (2009)
Baumann, Daniel, McAllister, Liam
We provide a pedagogical overview of inflation in string theory. Our theme is the sensitivity of inflation to Planck-scale physics, which we argue provides both the primary motivation and the central...
CMBPol Mission Concept Study: Probing Inflation with CMB Polarization (2008)
Baumann, Daniel, Jackson, Mark G, Adshead, Peter, Amblard, Alexandre, Ashoorioon, Amjad, Bartolo, Nicola, ...
We summarize the utility of precise cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization measurements as probes of the physics of inflation. We focus on the prospects for using CMB measurements to...
CMBPol Mission Concept Study: Probing Inflation with CMB Polarization (2008)
Baumann, Daniel, Jackson, Mark G., Adshead, Peter, Amblard, Alexandre, Ashoorioon, Amjad, Bartolo, Nicola, ...
We summarize the utility of precise cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization measurements as probes of the physics of inflation. We focus on the prospects for using CMB measurements to...
Holographic Systematics of D-brane Inflation (2008)
Baumann, Daniel, Dymarsky, Anatoly, Kachru, Shamit, Klebanov, Igor R., McAllister, Liam
We provide a systematic treatment of possible corrections to the inflaton potential for D-brane inflation in the warped deformed conifold. We consider the D3-brane potential in the presence of the...
Gravity Waves and Linear Inflation from Axion Monodromy (2008)
McAllister, Liam, Silverstein, Eva, Westphal, Alexander
Wrapped branes in string compactifications introduce a monodromy that extends the field range of individual closed-string axions to beyond the Planck scale. Furthermore, approximate shift symmetries...
String Cosmology: A Review (2007)
McAllister, Liam, Silverstein, Eva
We give an overview of the status of string cosmology. We explain the motivation for the subject, outline the main problems, and assess some of the proposed solutions. Our focus is on those aspects...
Towards an Explicit Model of D-brane Inflation (2007)
Baumann, Daniel, Dymarsky, Anatoly, Klebanov, Igor R., McAllister, Liam
We present a detailed analysis of an explicit model of warped D-brane inflation, incorporating the effects of moduli stabilization. We consider the potential for D3-brane motion in a warped conifold...
Baumann, Daniel, Dymarsky, Anatoly, Klebanov, Igor R., McAllister, Liam, Steinhardt, Paul J.
We investigate whether explicit models of warped D-brane inflation are possible in string compactifications. To this end, we study the potential for D3-brane motion in a warped conifold that includes...
Sequestering in String Theory (2007)
Kachru, Shamit, McAllister, Liam, Sundrum, Raman
We study sequestering, a prerequisite for flavor-blind supersymmetry breaking in several high-scale mediation mechanisms, in compactifications of type IIB string theory. We find that although...
D3-brane Vacua in Stabilized Compactifications (2007)
DeWolfe, Oliver, McAllister, Liam, Shiu, Gary, Underwood, Bret
D3-branes feel no force in no-scale flux compactifications of type IIB string theory, but the nonperturbative effects required to stabilize the Kahler moduli break the no-scale structure and generate...
A Microscopic Limit on Gravitational Waves from D-brane Inflation (2006)
Baumann, Daniel, McAllister, Liam
We derive a microscopic bound on the maximal field variation of the inflaton during warped D-brane inflation. By a result of Lyth, this implies an upper limit on the amount of gravitational waves...
On D3-brane Potentials in Compactifications with Fluxes and Wrapped D-branes (2006)
Baumann, Daniel, Dymarsky, Anatoly, Klebanov, Igor R., Maldacena, Juan, McAllister, Liam, Murugan, Arvind
We study the potential governing D3-brane motion in a warped throat region of a string compactification with internal fluxes and wrapped D-branes. If the Kahler moduli of the compact space are...
Random Matrices and the Spectrum of N-flation (2005)
Easther, Richard, McAllister, Liam
N-flation is a promising embedding of inflation in string theory in which many string axions combine to drive inflation. We characterize the dynamics of a general N-flation model with non-degenerate...
Inflationary models whose vacuum energy arises from a D-term are believed not to suffer from the supergravity eta problem of F-term inflation. That is, D-term models have the desirable property that...
Relativistic D-brane Scattering is Extremely Inelastic (2004)
McAllister, Liam, Mitra, Indrajit
We study the effects of quantum production of open strings on the relativistic scattering of D-branes. We find strong corrections to the brane trajectory from copious production of highly-excited...
Heterotic moduli stabilization with fractional Chern-Simons invariants (2004)
Gukov, Sergei, Kachru, Shamit, Liu, Xiao, McAllister, Liam
We show that fractional flux from Wilson lines can stabilize the moduli of heterotic string compactifications on Calabi-Yau threefolds. We observe that the Wilson lines used in GUT symmetry breaking...
Beauty is Attractive: Moduli Trapping at Enhanced Symmetry Points (2004)
Kofman, Lev, Linde, Andrei, Liu, Xiao, Maloney, Alexander, McAllister, Liam, Silverstein, Eva
We study quantum effects on moduli dynamics arising from the production of particles which are light at special points in moduli space. The resulting forces trap the moduli at these points, which...
Heterotic Moduli Stabilization with Fractional Chern-Simons Invariants (2003)
Gukov, Sergei, Kachru, Shamit, Liu, Xiao, McAllister, Liam
We show that fractional flux from Wilson lines can stabilize the moduli of heterotic string compactifications on Calabi-Yau threefolds. We observe that the Wilson lines used in GUT symmetry breaking...
Towards Inflation in String Theory (2003)
Kachru, Shamit, Kallosh, Renata, Linde, Andrei, Maldacena, Juan, McAllister, Liam, Trivedi, Sandip P.
We investigate the embedding of brane inflation into stable compactifications of string theory. At first sight a warped compactification geometry seems to produce a naturally flat inflaton potential,...