The radial direction of the Peccei-Quinn field can drive cosmic inflation, given a nonminimal coupling to gravity. This scenario has been considered to simultaneously explain inflation, the strong $CP$ problem, and dark matter. We argue that Peccei-Quinn inflation is extremely sensitive to higher-dimensional operators. Further combining with the discussion on the axion quality required for solving the strong $CP$ problem, we examine the validity of this scenario. We also show that after Peccei-Quinn inflation, resonant amplifications of the field fluctuation is inevitably triggered.

• Received 21 August 2023
• Accepted 8 September 2023

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.108.063530

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP³.

Published by the American Physical Society