Search results for "Inflaton"
showing 10 items of 35 documents
From hybrid to quadratic inflation with high-scale supersymmetry breaking
2014
Motivated by the reported discovery of inflationary gravity waves by the BICEP2 experiment, we propose an inflationary scenario in supergravity, based on the standard superpotential used in hybrid inflation. The new model yields a tensor-to-scalar ratio r ~ 0.14 and scalar spectral index ns ~ 0.964, corresponding to quadratic (chaotic) inflation. The important new ingredients are the high-scale, (1.6-10) x 10^13 GeV, soft supersymmetry breaking mass for the gauge singlet inflaton field and a shift symmetry imposed on the K\"ahler potential. The end of inflation is accompanied, as in the earlier hybrid inflation models, by the breaking of a gauge symmetry at (1.2-7.1) x 10^16 GeV, comparable…
Impact of general reionization scenarios on extraction of inflationary parameters
2010
Determination of whether the Harrison-Zel'dovich spectrum for primordial scalar perturbations is consistent with observations is sensitive to assumptions about the reionization scenario. In light of this result, we revisit constraints on inflationary models using more general reionization scenarios. While the bounds on the tensor-to-scalar ratio are largely unmodified, when different reionization schemes are addressed, hybrid models are back into the inflationary game. In the general reionization picture, we reconstruct both the shape and amplitude of the inflaton potential. We discuss how relaxing the simple reionization restriction affects the reconstruction of the potential through the c…
Inflation might be caused by the right
2009
15 pages, 4 figures.-- ISI article identifier: 000265600800102.-- ArXiv pre-print avaible at: http://arxiv.org/abs/0811.2998
Upper bound on the tensor-to-scalar ratio in GUT-scale supersymmetric hybrid inflation
2014
We explore the upper bound on the tensor-to-scalar ratio r in supersymmetric (F-term) hybrid inflation models with the gauge symmetry breaking scale set equal to the value 2.86⋅1016 GeV2.86⋅1016 GeV, as dictated by the unification of the MSSM gauge couplings. We employ a unique renormalizable superpotential and a quasi-canonical Kähler potential, and the scalar spectral index nsns is required to lie within the two-sigma interval from the central value found by the Planck satellite. In a sizable region of the parameter space the potential along the inflationary trajectory is a monotonically increasing function of the inflaton, and for this case, r≲2.9⋅10−4r≲2.9⋅10−4, while the spectral index…
Dynamical analysis of anisotropic inflation
2016
Inflaton coupling to a vector field via the $f^2(\phi)F_{\mu\nu}F^{\mu\nu}$ term is used in several contexts in the literature, such as to generate primordial magnetic fields, to produce statistically anisotropic curvature perturbation, to support anisotropic inflation and to circumvent the $\eta$-problem. Here, I perform dynamical analysis of such a system allowing for most general Bianchi I initial conditions. I also confirm the stability of attractor equilibrium points in phase-space directions that had not been investigated before.
Higgs-Inflaton Mixing and Vacuum Stability
2019
The quartic and trilinear Higgs field couplings to an additional real scalar are renormalizable, gauge and Lorentz invariant. Thus, on general grounds, one expects such couplings between the Higgs and an inflaton in quantum field theory. In particular, the (often omitted) trilinear coupling is motivated by the need for reheating the Universe after inflation, whereby the inflaton decays into the Standard Model (SM) particles. Such a coupling necessarily leads to the Higgs-inflaton mixing, which could stabilize the electroweak vacuum by increasing the Higgs self-coupling. We find that the inflationary constraints on the trilinear coupling are weak such that the Higgs-inflaton mixing up to ord…
Novel mechanism for primordial perturbations in minimal extensions of the Standard Model
2020
Abstract We demonstrate that light spectator fields in their equilibrium can source sizeable CMB anisotropies through modulated reheating even in the absence of direct couplings to the inflaton. The effect arises when the phase space of the inflaton decay is modulated by the spectator which generates masses for the decay products. We call the mechanism indirect modulation and using the stochastic eigenvalue expansion show that it can source perturbations even four orders of magnitude larger than the observed amplitude. Importantly, the indirect mechanism is present in the Standard Model extended with right- handed neutrinos. For a minimally coupled Higgs boson this leads to a novel lower bo…
Postinflationary vacuum instability and Higgs-inflaton couplings
2016
The Higgs-inflaton coupling plays an important role in the Higgs field dynamics in the early Universe. Even a tiny coupling generated at loop level can have a dramatic effect on the fate of the electroweak vacuum. Such Higgs-inflaton interaction is present both at the trilinear and quartic levels in realistic reheating models. In this work, we examine the Higgs dynamics during the preheating epoch, focusing on the effects of the parametric and tachyonic resonances. We use lattice simulations and other numerical tools in our studies. We find that the resonances can induce large fluctuations of the Higgs field which destabilize the electroweak vacuum. Our considerations thus provide an upper …
Higgs-like spectator field as the origin of structure
2021
We show that the observed primordial perturbations can be entirely sourced by a light spectator scalar field with a quartic potential, akin to the Higgs boson, provided that the field is sufficiently displaced from vacuum during inflation. The framework relies on the indirect modulation of reheating, which is implemented without any direct coupling between the spectator field and the inflaton and does not require non-renormalisable interactions. The scenario gives rise to local non-Gaussianity with $f_{\rm NL}\simeq 5$ as the typical signal. As an example model where the indirect modulation mechanism is realised for the Higgs boson, we study the Standard Model extended with right-handed neu…
Early Universe Higgs dynamics in the presence of the Higgs-inflaton and non-minimal Higgs-gravity couplings
2017
Apparent metastability of the electroweak vacuum poses a number of cosmological questions. These concern evolution of the Higgs field to the current vacuum, and its stability during and after inflation. Higgs-inflaton and non-minimal Higgs-gravity interactions can make a crucial impact on these considerations potentially solving the problems. In this work, we allow for these couplings to be present simultaneously and study their interplay. We find that different combinations of the Higgs-inflaton and non-minimal Higgs-gravity couplings induce effective Higgs mass during and after inflation. This crucially affects the Higgs stability considerations during preheating. In particular, a wide ra…