Comments on D-term inflation

Abstract An inflationary stage dominated by a D -term avoids the slow-roll problem of inflation in supergravity and can naturally emerge in theories with a non-anomalous or anomalous U (1) gauge symmetry. In the latter case, however, the scale of inflation as imposed by the COBE normalization is in contrast with the value fixed by the Green-Schwarz mechanism of anomaly cancellation. In this paper we discuss possible solutions to this problem and comment about the fact that the string-loop generated Fayet-Iliopoulos D -term may trigger the presence of global and local cosmic strings at the end of inflation.