Energy conditions in Starobinsky supergravity

Understand

We consider the classical energy conditions (strong, null and weak) in Starobinsky supergravity theories.

• We study in detail the simplest Starobinsky supergravity model in the "old-minimal" supergravity setup and find examples of violations of each energy condition for a certain range of the parameters due to extra scalar d.o.f.
• present in supergravity.
• We find the null and weak energy conditions to be preserved and the strong energy condition to be violated in the physically relevant examples such as inflation and dark energy.