We show that, in constructions with additional intersecting D-branes, brane-antibrane inflation may naturally occur in a warm regime, such that strong dissipative effects damp the inflaton’s motion, greatly alleviating the associated $\eta$-problem. We illustrate this for D3-$\overline{\mathrm{D}3}$ inflation in flat space with additional flavor D7 branes, where for a Coulomb-like or quadratic hybrid potential a sufficient number of e-folds may be obtained for perturbative couplings and $\mathcal{O}(10–{10}^4)$ branes. This is in clear contrast with the corresponding cold scenarios, thus setting the stage for more realistic constructions within fully stabilized compactifications. Such models generically predict a negligible amount of tensor perturbations and non-Gaussianity $f_{NL}\sim \mathcal{O}(10)$.

• Received 29 March 2011

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.84.103503