Related papers: On initial conditions for the Hot Big Bang
We consider a possibility that the Higgs field in the Standard Model (SM) serves as an inflaton when its value is around the Planck scale. We assume that the SM is valid up to an ultraviolet cutoff scale \Lambda, which is slightly below the…
The early stages of the universe evolution are discussed according to the hot big bang model and the grand unified theories. The shortcomings of big bang are summarized and their resolution by inflationary cosmology is sketched.…
Flat directions in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) can become unstable due to radiative corrections, and the global minimum of the (zero temperature) potential can lie at large values of the squark and/or slepton fields.…
We investigate a simple model to explain inflation, neutrino masses and dark matter simultaneously. This is based on the so-called radiative seesaw model proposed by Ma in order to explain neutrino masses and dark matter by introducing a…
The concept of Higgs inflation can be elegantly incorporated in the Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (NMSSM). A linear combination of the two Higgs-doublet fields plays the role of the inflaton which is non-minimally coupled to…
The Standard Model Higgs becomes tachyonic at high energy scales according to current measurements. This unstable regime of the Higgs potential can be realized in the early Universe during high scale inflation, potentially with catastrophic…
We show that a minimal scenario, utilizing only the graviton as an intermediate messenger between the inflaton, the dark sector and the Standard Model (SM), is able to generate $simultaneously$ the observed relic density of dark matter…
The Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (NMSSM) can incorporate inflation, where a combination of the Higgs-doublet fields plays the role of the inflaton. At the high scale, the Higgs doublets are non-minimally coupled to…
We revisit a cosmological scenario based on the classically conformal $U(1)_{B-L}$-extension of the Standard Model. Our focus is on the mechanism of reheating after inflation and the constraints on the model parameters. In this scenario,…
The initial density of dark matter (DM) particles, otherwise secluded from the standard model (SM), may be generated at reheating, with an initial temperature ratio for internal thermalizations, $\xi_i=T_{\rm DM,i}/T_{\rm SM,i}$. This…
The excessive production of gravitinos in the early universe destroys the successful predictions of nucleosynthesis. The thermal generation of gravitinos after inflation leads to the bound on the reheating temperature, T_{RH}< 10^9 GeV.…
The aim of this paper is to determine an exact definition of the reheat temperature for a generic perturbative decay of the inflaton. In order to estimate the reheat temperature, there are two important conditions one needs to satisfy: (a)…
We study particle production at the preheating era in inflation models with nonminimal coupling $\xi \phi^2R$ and quartic potential $\lambda \phi^4/4$ for several cases: real scalar inflaton, complex scalar inflaton and Abelian Higgs…
We argue that the SM in the Higgs phase does not suffer form a "hierarchy problem" and that similarly the "cosmological constant problem" resolves itself if we understand the SM as a low energy effective theory emerging from a cut-off…
Sterile neutrinos offer a minimal and testable explanation for dark matter (DM), with their radiative decay actively searched for in X-ray observations. We show that cold sterile neutrino DM can be efficiently produced during reheating from…
We propose a two-phase reheating scenario where the initial preheating dynamics is described by an effective dynamics followed by the standard perturbative reheating. Some of the important universal results of lattice simulation during…
Even though the Standard Model with a Higgs mass mH = 125 GeV possesses no bulk phase transition, its thermodynamics still experiences a "soft point" at temperatures around T = 160 GeV, with a deviation from ideal gas thermodynamics. Such a…
Different well-know ways to reheat the universe such as instant preheating, the creation of particles nearly or conformally coupled with gravity, or from the decay products of a curvaton field, are revisited and discussed in detail in the…
The strength of electroweak symmetry breaking may substantially differ in the early Universe compared to the present day value. In the Standard Model, the Higgs vacuum expectation value (vev) vanishes and electroweak symmetry gets restored…
We perform a thorough study of thermal leptogenesis adding finite temperature effects, RGE corrections, scatterings involving gauge bosons and by properly avoiding overcounting on-shell processes. Assuming hierarchical right-handed…