Realistic Inflation Models and Primordial Gravity Waves

We consider a variety of realistic inflationary potentials and discuss their predictions for the tensor to scalar ratio r, a canonical measure of gravity waves generated during inflation. For a Standard Model gauge singlet inflaton with a Higgs-like potential, for example, we find that r ∼> 0.02, which may be observed by the Planck satellite. We also identify supersymmetric hybrid inflation models where r can be as high as 0.03, again within the reach of Planck. The scalar spectral index in these models lies within the WMAP one sigma bounds.