Is F-term hybrid inflation natural within minimal supersymmetric SO(10)?

Understand

We examine whether F-term supersymmetric hybrid inflation can be embedded within the minimal SO(10) model, in a natural way.

• We show that none of the singlets of the Standard Model symmetries in the minimal set of SO(10) representations can satisfy the conditions which are necessary for a scalar field to play the role of the inflaton.
• As a consequence, one has to introduce an extra scalar field, which however may spoil the naturalness of inflation within the context of SO(10).
• Nevertheless, if we add an extra scalar field, we are then able to construct a model that can accommodate flat directions while it preserves the stability of the inflationary valley.