Minimal Supersymmetric Hybrid Inflation, Flipped SU(5) and Proton Decay

Understand

Minimal supersymmetric hybrid inflation utilizes a canonical Kahler potential and a renormalizable superpotential which is uniquely determined by imposing a U(1) R-symmetry.

• In computing the scalar spectral index $n_s$ we take into account modifications of the tree level potential caused by radiative and supergravity corrections, as well as contributions from the soft supersymmetry breaking terms with a negative soft mass-squared term allowed for the inflaton.
• All of these contributions play a role in realizing $n_s$ values in the range 0.96-0.97 preferred by WMAP.
• The U(1) R-symmetry plays an important role in flipped SU(5) by eliminating the troublesome dimension five proton decay.