Abstract
In string theory compactifications it is common to find an effective Lagrangian for the scalar fields with a non-canonical kinetic term. We study the effective action of the scalar position moduli of Type II Dp-branes. In many instances the kinetic terms are in fact modified by a term proportional to the scalar potential itself. This can be linked to the appearance of higher-dimensional supersymmetric operators correcting the Kähler potential. We identify the supersymmetric dimension-eight operators describing the α′ corrections captured by the D-brane Dirac-Born-Infeld action. Our analysis then allows an embedding of the D-brane moduli effective action into an \( \mathcal{N}=1 \) supergravity formulation. The effects of the potential-dependent kinetic terms may be very important if one of the scalars is the inflaton, since they lead to a flattening of the scalar potential. We analyze this flattening effect in detail and compute its impact on the CMB observables for single-field inflation with monomial potentials.
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Bielleman, S., Ibáñez, L.E., Pedro, F.G. et al. The DBI action, higher-derivative supergravity, and flattening inflaton potentials. J. High Energ. Phys. 2016, 95 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP05(2016)095
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP05(2016)095