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Can a broken symmetry field make inflation stable and avoid domain walls?

Hyun Min Lee, Adriana G. Menkara

May 21, 2026

Hybrid inflation typically suffers from quantum instability—loop corrections from additional fields destabilize the inflaton potential. This work uses a discrete $Z_N$ symmetry among waterfall fields to cancel the dangerous corrections while keeping the model technically natural. The setup avoids domain wall defects after reheating and produces dark matter candidates, making it observationally viable across multiple symmetry choices.
Published as Pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone inflation with $Z_N$ symmetric waterfall fields arXiv:2605.22464
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