%0 Generic
%A Rompineve Sorbello, Fabrizio
%D 2017
%F heidok:22904
%R 10.11588/heidok.00022904
%T Imprints of Quantum Gravity on Large Field Inflation and Reheating
%U https://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/22904/
%X In this thesis we investigate the feasibility and phenomenology of transplanckian field displacements  during Inflation as well as the production of very light fields during Reheating.  We begin by focusing on realisations of axion inflation in the complex structure moduli  sector of Type IIB String Theory (ST) flux compactifications. Firstly, we analyse the problem  of backreaction of complex structure moduli on the inflationary trajectory in a concrete model  of axion monodromy inflation. Secondly, we propose a realisation of natural inflation where the  inflaton arises as a combination of two axions. In both cases we find sufficiently flat inflationary  potentials over a limited, but transplanckian field range. However, our realisation of axion  monodromy inflation requires a potentially large, though realisable, number of tunings to ensure  that the inflationary shift symmetry is only weakly broken.  The consequences of the Weak Gravity Conjecture (WGC) for axion monodromy inflation  are then explored. We find that the conjecture provides a bound on the inflationary field range,  but does not forbid transplanckian displacements. Moreover, we provide a strategy to generalise  the WGC to general p-form gauge theories in ST.  Finally, we focus on the physics of the early post-inflationary phase. We show that axion  monodromy inflation can lead to a phase decomposition, followed by the radiation of potentially  detectable gravitational waves. We also propose a strategy to evade the overproduction of Dark  Radiation in the Large Volume Scenario of moduli stabilisation, by means of flavour branes  wrapping the bulk cycle of the compactification manifold.