English

Higgs-inflaton coupling from reheating and the metastable Universe

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology 2015-12-15 v2 Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics

Abstract

Current Higgs boson and top quark data favor metastability of our vacuum which raises questions as to why the Universe has chosen an energetically disfavored state and remained there during inflation. In this Letter, we point out that these problems can be solved by a Higgs-inflaton coupling which appears in realistic models of inflation. Since an inflaton must couple to the Standard Model particles either directly or indirectly, such a coupling is generated radiatively, even if absent at tree level. As a result, the dynamics of the Higgs field can change dramatically.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1506.05106,
  title  = {Higgs-inflaton coupling from reheating and the metastable Universe},
  author = {Christian Gross and Oleg Lebedev and Marco Zatta},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1506.05106},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

v2: 5 pages, minor corrections