A Permutation on Hybrid Natural Inflation
  We analyze a model of hybrid natural inflation based on the smallest
non-Abelian discrete group S_3. Leading invariant terms in the scalar potential
have an accidental global symmetry that is spontaneously broken, providing a
pseudo-Goldstone boson that is identified as the inflaton. The S_3 symmetry
restricts both the form of the inflaton potential and the couplings of the
inflaton field to the waterfall fields responsible for the end of inflation. We
identify viable points in the model parameter space. Although the power in
tensor modes is small in most of the parameter space of the model, we identify
parameter choices that yield potentially observable values of r without
super-Planckian initial values of the inflaton field.
