A-term inflation and the minimal supersymmetric standard model

The parameter space for A-term inflation is explored with W = lambda(phi p)(p)/pM(P)(p-3) . With p = 6 and lambda(p)similar to 1, the observed spectrum and spectral tilt can be obtained with soft mass of order 10(2) GeV but not with a much higher mass. The case p = 3 requires lambda(p) similar to 10(-9) to 10(-12). The ratio m/A requires fine-tuning, which may be justified on environmental grounds. An extension of the minimal supersymmetric standard model to include non-renormalizable terms and/ or Dirac neutrino masses might support either A-term inflation or modular inflation.