Naturally inflating on steep potentials through electromagnetic
  dissipation
  In models of natural inflation, the inflaton is an axion-like particle.
Unfortunately, axion potentials in UV-complete theories appear to be too steep
to drive inflation. We show that, even for a steep potential, natural inflation
can occur if the coupling between axion and gauge fields is taken into account.
Due to this coupling, quanta of the gauge field are produced by the rolling of
the axion. If the coupling is large enough, such a dissipative effect slows
down the axion, leading to inflation even for a steep potential. The spectrum
of perturbations is quasi-scale invariant, but in the simplest construction its
amplitude is larger than $10^{-5}$. We discuss a possible way out of this
problem.
