Related papers: Inflation and the Higgs Scalar
The dynamics of a universe dominated by a self-interacting nonminimally coupled scalar field are considered. The structure of the phase space and complete phase portraits are given. New dynamical behaviors include superinflation…
The quantum gravitational scale of inflation is calculated by finding a sharp probability peak in the distribution function of chaotic inflationary cosmologies driven by a scalar field with large negative constant $\xi$ of nonminimal…
These lecture notes provide a pedagogical introduction to some aspects of the inflationary cosmology, including the background scalar field dynamics, generation of primordial seed perturbations via quantum fluctuations during inflation, and…
Inflation is considered as the best theory of the early universe by a very large fraction of cosmologists. However, the validity of a scientific model is not decided by counting the number of its supporters and, therefore, this dominance…
I review the present status of the problem of initial conditions for inflation and describe several ways to solve this problem for many popular inflationary models, including the recent generation of the models with plateau potentials…
Scalar field models of inflation based on a large nonminimal coupling to gravity xi, in particular, Higgs inflation, may violate unitarity at an energy scale ~ M_p / xi << M_p. In this case the model is incomplete at energy scales relevant…
We explore in the supergravity context the possibility that a Higgs scalar may drive inflation via a non-minimal coupling to gravity characterised by a large dimensionless coupling constant. We find that this scenario is not compatible with…
Cosmological implications of Higgs field fluctuations during inflation are considered. This study is based on the Standard Model and the standard quadratic model of chaotic inflation where the Higgs field is minimally coupled to gravity and…
The possibility to construct an inflationary scenario for renormalization-group improved potentials corresponding to the Higgs sector of finite gauge models is investigated. Taking into account quantum corrections to the…
We consider models of chaotic inflation driven by the real parts of a conjugate pair of Higgs superfields involved in the spontaneous breaking of a grand unification symmetry at a scale assuming its Supersymmetric value. Employing Kaehler…
The homogeneous cosmological model in GR is proposed, where the vacuum energy, which can cause the inflation, is described by tensor field rather than by commonly used in inflationary scenarios scalar field. It is shown that if the initial…
We investigate inflationary dynamics in the framework of the Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity. In the model under consideration, the inflaton field is non-minimally coupled to the Gauss-Bonnet curvature invariant, so that the latter appears to…
Cosmological models with inflation and those with bounce have their own strengths and weaknesses. Here we construct a model in which a phase of bounce is followed by a viable inflationary phase. This incorporates several advantages of both…
A simple realization of inflation consists of adding the following operators to the Einstein-Hilbert action: (partial phi)^2, lambda phi^4, and xi phi^2 R, with xi a large non-minimal coupling. Recently there has been much discussion as to…
In this paper, we investigate models where a scalar field driving inflation is minimally coupled with gravity and it is subjected to a scalar potential. We present several examples of coupling between the field and gravity, and we furnish…
In these lectures I review the standard hot big-bang cosmology, emphasizing its successes, its shortcomings, and its major challenges-developing a detailed understanding of the formation of structure in the Universe and identifying the…
A scalar Higgs field can be repeatedly switched on and off when it couples to a classically oscillating scalar modulus field. The modulus flips the Higgs mass term between stable and tachyonic values. We study a cosmological scenario in…
The very basics of cosmological inflation are discussed. We derive the equations of motion for the inflaton field, introduce the slow-roll parameters, and present the computation of the inflationary perturbations and their connection to the…
Within General Relativity, a minimally coupled scalar field governed by a quadratic potential is able to produce an accelerated expansion of the universe provided its value and excursion are larger than the Planck scale. This is an…
In this short note we analyze the inflationary dynamics in Weyl-invariant Einstein-Cartan gravity coupled to the Standard Model of particle physics. We take the axion-like particle of gravitational origin to be approximately massless in the…