Abstract
We present a new model of inflation in which the inflaton is the extra component of a gauge field in a 5D theory compactified on a circle. The chief merit of this model is that the potential comes only from nonlocal effects so that its flatness is not spoiled by higher-dimensional operators or quantum gravity corrections. The model predicts a red spectrum () and a significant production of gravitational waves (). We also comment on the relevance of this idea to quintessence.
- Received 13 February 2003
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.90.221302
©2003 American Physical Society