Talks

Realizations of inflation in string theory hold the promise of connecting the theory to observational tests, and at the same time providing new insights for field theory models of inflation. I will report on progress towards realizing inflation on D-branes in type IIB string theory. Moduli stabilization effects generically lead to an eta problem in this scenario, and to analyze the model it is necessary to compute a particular correction to the nonperturbative effects arising on wrapped D-branes. I will explain this calculation, then present results for the full inflaton potential that establish the existence of successful models, albeit with qualitatively new predictions.