A Natural Framework for Chaotic Inflation

Understand

We show that inflation with a quadratic potential occurs naturally in theories where an axion-like field mixes with a 4-form.

• Such an axion is massive, with the mass which arises from the mixing being protected by the axion shift symmetry.
• The 4-form backgrounds break this symmetry spontaneously and comprise a mini-landscape, where their fluxes can change by emission of membranes.
• Inflation can begin when the 4-form dominates the energy density.