We study a particular version of the theory of cosmological α-attractors with α = 1/3, in which both the dilaton (inflaton) field and the axion field are light during inflation. The kinetic terms in this theory originate from maximal N = 4 superconformal symmetry and from maximal N = 8 supergravity. We show that because of the underlying hyperbolic geometry of the moduli space in this theory, it exhibits double attractor behavior: their cosmological predictions are stable not only with respect to significant modifications of the dilaton potential, but also with respect to significant modifications of the axion potential: n s 1 − 2 N , r 4 N 2 . We also show that the universality of predictions extends to other values of α O(1) with general two-field potentials that may or may not have an embedding in supergravity. Our results support the idea that inflation involving multiple, not stabilized, light fields on a hyperbolic manifold may be compatible with current observational constraints for a broad class of potentials. 1 Alternatively, 3α ∂T ∂T (T +T ) 2 , where T = 1+Z 1−Z . 2 See [20] for a recent review and references there.

We develop the effective theory of large-scale structure for non-Gaussian initial conditions. The effective stress tensor in the dark matter equations of motion contains new operators, which originate from the squeezed limit of the primordial bispectrum. Parameterizing the squeezed limit by a scaling and an angular dependence, captures large classes of primordial non-Gaussianity. Within this parameterization, we classify the possible contributions to the effective theory. We show explicitly how all terms consistent with the symmetries arise from coarse graining the dark matter equations of motion and its initial conditions. We also demonstrate that the system is closed under renormalization and that the basis of correction terms is therefore complete. The relevant corrections to the matter power spectrum and bispectrum are computed numerically and their relative importance is discussed.

We construct a model of natural inflation in the context of α-attractor supergravity, in which both the dilaton field and the axion field are light during inflation, and the inflaton may be a combination of the two. The T-model version of this theory is defined on the Poincaré disk with radius |Z| = 1. It describes a Mexican hat potential with the flat axion direction corresponding to a circle of radius |Z| < 1. The axion decay constant f a in this theory can be exponentially large because of the hyperbolic geometry of the Poincaré disk. Depending on initial conditions, this model may describe α-attractor inflation driven by the radial component of the inflaton field, natural inflation driven by the axion field, or a sequence of these two regimes. We also construct the E-model version of this theory, which have similar properties. In addition, we describe generalized α-attractor models where the potential can be singular at the boundary of the moduli space, and show that they can provide a simple solution for the problem of initial conditions for the models with plateau potentials.

Axion inflation entails a coupling of the inflaton field to gauge fields through the Chern-Simons term. This results in a strong gauge field production during inflation, which backreacts on the inflaton equation of motion. Here we show that this strongly non-linear system generically experiences a resonant enhancement of the gauge field production, resulting in oscillatory features in the inflaton velocity as well as in the gauge field spectrum. The gauge fields source a strongly enhanced scalar power spectrum at small scales, exceeding previous estimates. For appropriate parameter choices, the collapse of these over-dense regions can lead to a large population of (light) primordial black holes with remarkable phenomenological consequences.

We present a new class of two-field inflationary attractor models, known as shift-symmetric orbital inflation, whose behavior is strongly multifield but whose predictions are remarkably close to those of single-field inflation. In these models, the field space metric and potential are such that the inflaton trajectory is along an "angular" isometry direction whose "radius" is constant but arbitrary. As a result, the radial (isocurvature) perturbations away from the trajectory are exactly massless and they freeze on superhorizon scales. These models are the first exact realization of the "ultra-light isocurvature" scenario, previously described in the literature, where a combined shift symmetry emerges between the curvature and isocurvature perturbations and results in primordial perturbation spectra that are entirely consistent with current observations. Due to the turning trajectory, the radial perturbation sources the tangential (curvature) perturbation and makes it grow linearly in time. As a result, only one degree of freedom (i.e., the one from isocurvature modes) is responsible for the primordial observables at the end of inflation, which yields the same phenomenology as in single-field inflation. In particular, isocurvature perturbations and local non-Gaussianity are highly suppressed here, even if the inflationary dynamics is truly multifield. We comment on the generalization to models with more than two fields.