Related papers: Light inflaton Hunter's Guide
In a variety of inflation models the motion of the inflaton may trigger the production of some non-inflaton particles during inflation, for example via parametric resonance or a phase transition. Particle production during inflation leads…
We show that inflation can naturally occur at a finite temperature T>H that is sustained by dissipative effects, when the inflaton field corresponds to a pseudo Nambu-Goldstone boson of a broken gauge symmetry. Similarly to "Little Higgs"…
We investigate the reach of future gravitational wave (GW) detectors in probing inflaton couplings with visible sector particles that can either be bosonic or fermionic in nature. Assuming reheating takes place through perturbative quantum…
We construct a new inflation model in which the standard model Higgs boson couples minimally to gravity and acts as the inflaton. Our construction of Higgs inflation incorporates the standard model with Einstein gravity which exhibits…
An oscillating inflaton field induces small amplitude oscillations of the Hubble parameter at the end of inflation. These Hubble parameter induced oscillations, in turn, trigger parametric particle production of all light fields, even if…
The discovery of the Higgs particle has yielded a specific value for the mass of the Higgs boson, which, depending on some technical details in the calculation of the $\overline{\mathrm{MS}}$ parameters (relevant for the high energy range)…
We propose a class of models in which a stable inflaton is produced as a thermal relic in the early universe and constitutes the dark matter. We show that inflaton annihilations can efficiently reheat the universe, and identify several…
We propose a simple model where a {\it gauge invariant inflaton} is responsible for cosmic inflation and generates the seed for structure formation, while its relic {\it thermal} abundance explains the missing matter of the universe in the…
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…
Inflation is nowadays a well-established paradigm consistent with all the observations. The precise nature of the inflaton is however unknown and its role could be played by any candidate able to imitate a scalar condensate in the slow-roll…
A search is conducted for a new beyond-the-Standard-Model boson using events where a Higgs boson with mass 125 GeV decays to four leptons ($\ell =$ $e$ or $\mu$). This decay is presumed to occur via an intermediate state which contains one…
It is known that gravitinos are non-thermally produced in inflaton decay processes, which excludes many inflation models for a wide range of the gravitino mass. We find that the constraints from the gravitino overproduction can be greatly…
Cosmological reheating bridges the inflationary epoch and the hot big bang phase, yet its underlying dynamics remain poorly understood. In this work, we investigate a minimal scenario in which the inflaton evolves under a simple power-law…
A huge value of cosmological constant characteristic for the particle physics and the inflation of early Universe are inherently related to each other: one can construct a fine-tuned superpotential, which produces a flat potential of…
A search for the decay of the Standard Model Higgs boson into a $b\bar{b}$ pair when produced in association with a $W$ or $Z$ boson is performed with the ATLAS detector. The analysed data, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.1…
Determining the energy scale of inflation is crucial to understand the nature of inflation in the early Universe. We place observational constraints on the energy scale of the observable part of the inflaton potential by combining the…
We investigate chaotic inflation models with two scalar fields, such that one field (the inflaton) rolls while the other is trapped in a false vacuum state. The false vacuum becomes unstable when the inflaton field falls below some critical…
We study the mechanism of generation of 7 keV sterile neutrino Dark Matter (DM) in the model with light inflaton $\chi$, which serves as a messenger of scale invariance breaking. In this model the inflaton, in addition to providing…
In Higgs-otic inflation a complex neutral scalar combination of the $h^0$ and $H^0$ MSSM Higgs fields plays the role of inflaton in a chaotic fashion. The potential is protected from large trans-Planckian corrections at large inflaton if…
A special class of conformal gravity theories is proposed to solve the long standing problem of the fine-tuned cosmological constant. In the proposed model time evolution of the inflaton field leaves behind a nearly vanishing, but finite…