2014/04/28 by S.-H. Henry Tye, S. -H. Henry Tye, Tye, S. -H. Henry +2 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO) #FOS: Physical sciences #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc) #High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th) #Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics #astro-ph.CO #gr-qc #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1404.6988
18 pages, 2 figures. Correct a typo in the 2 tables. Reword the introductory remarks on inflation and cosmic strings. Add a reference
openalex publication_date 2014/04/28 · arxiv created 2014/06/26 · arxiv updated 2014/06/27 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Recent BICEP2 detection of low-multipole B-mode polarization anisotropy in the cosmic microwave background radiation supports the inflationary universe scenario and suggests a large inflaton field range. The latter feature can be achieved with axion fields in the framework of string theory. We present such a helical model which naturally becomes a model with a single cosine potential, and which in turn reduces to the (quadratic) chaotic inflation model in the super-Planckian limit. The slightly smaller tensor/scalar ratio r of models of this type provides a signature of the periodic nature of an axion potential. We present a simple way to quantify this distinctive feature. As axions are intimately related to strings/vortices and strings are ubiquitous in string theory, we explore the possibility that cosmic strings may be contributing to the B-mode polarization anisotropy observed.