Joint cosmology seminar at MIT:

Tuesday, November 7, 2017, 2:30 pm
Cosman Seminar Room
Center for Theoretical Physics
Building 6C, Room 6C-442
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Refreshments at 2:00 in the same room

Axion Inflation in Quantum Gravity

Liam McAllister
Cornell

Abstract:

To understand quantum gravity constraints on large-field inflation, it has proved useful to study theories in which the inflaton is an axion. I will compare the two main frameworks for large-field axion inflation, monodromy and alignment, and describe their limitations. I will then describe the constraints that the Lattice Weak Gravity Conjecture (LWGC) imposes on axion alignment. By resummation of instanton lattice series, I will show that some effective theories of large-field axion inflation are excluded if the LWGC is true, while others remain unconstrained.