Inflation from Supergravity with Gauged R-symmetry in de Sitter Vacuum
  We study the cosmology of a recent model of supersymmetry breaking, in the
presence of a tuneable positive cosmological constant, based on a gauged shift
symmetry of a string modulus that can be identified with the string dilaton.
The minimal spectrum of the `hidden' supersymmetry breaking sector consists
then of a vector multiplet that gauges the shift symmetry of the dilaton
multiplet and when coupled to the MSSM leads to a distinct low energy
phenomenology depending on one parameter. Here we study the question if this
model can also lead to inflation by identifying the dilaton with the inflaton.
We find that this is possible if the K\"ahler potential is modified by a term
that has the form of NS5-brane instantons, leading to an appropriate
inflationary plateau around the maximum of the scalar potential, depending on
two extra parameters. This model is consistent with present cosmological
observations without modifying the low energy particle phenomenology associated
to the minimum of the scalar potential.
