Fibre Inflation: Observable Gravity Waves from IIB String Compactifications

We introduce a simple string model of inflation, in which the inflaton field can take trans-Planckian values while driving a period of slow-roll inflation. This leads naturally to a realisation of large field inflation, inasmuch as the inflationary epoch is well described by the single-field scalar potential V = V_0 (3 - 4 exp{-phi/\sqrt{3}}). Remarkably, for a broad class of vacua all adjustable parameters enter only through the overall coefficient V_0, and in particular do not enter into the slow-roll parameters. Predictions for observables are therefore completely determined by the number of e-foldings (and so are correlated with the post-inflationary reheat temperature, T_r). If the reheat temperature is T_r = 1, 100, 10^{10} or 10^{15} GeV, then N_e = 23, 28, 46 and 58 e-foldings of inflation are required after horizon exit, corresponding to a scalar spectral index n_s = 0.924, 0.937, 0.961 and 0.968, while the ratio of tensor to scalar perturbations becomes r = 0.0264, 0.0189, 0.00797 and 0.00528, within reach of future observations. The model is an example of a class that arises naturally in the context of type IIB string compactifications with large-volume moduli stabilisation, and takes advantage of the generic existence there of Kahler moduli whose dominant appearance in the scalar potential arises from string loop corrections to the Kahler potential. In the particular example we consider the inflaton field is a combi nation of Kahler moduli of a K3-fibered Calabi-Yau manifold. We believe there are likely to be a great number of models in this class - `high-fibre models' - in which the inflaton starts off far enough up the fibre to produce observably large primordial gravity waves.