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We investigate the sources of the Hubble-induced mass for a flat direction in supersymmetric theories and show that the sign of the Hubble-induced mass generally changes just after the end of inflation. This implies that global cosmic…
The combination of non-minimal couplings to gravity with the post-inflationary kinetic-dominated era typically appearing in quintessential inflation scenarios may lead to the spontaneous symmetry breaking of internal symmetries and its…
Supersymmetry is generally broken by the non-vanishing vacuum energy density present during inflation. In supergravity models, such a source of supersymmetry breaking typically makes a contribution to scalar masses of order ${\tilde m}^2…
It has recently been shown that specific non-perturbative effects may lead to an explosive decay of flat direction condensates in supersymmetric theories. We confirm explicitly the efficiency of this process with lattice simulations: after…
Most models of inflation have small parameters, either to guarantee sufficient inflation or the correct magnitude of the density perturbations. In this paper we show that, in supersymmetric theories with weak scale supersymmetry breaking,…
Most models of inflation have small parameters, either to guarantee sufficient inflation or the correct magnitude of the density perturbations. In this paper we show that, in supersymmetric theories with weak scale supersymmetry breaking,…
It is well known that large Hubble-induced supergravity corrections to the inflaton field can ruin the flatness of the potential, thus creating a tension between slow-roll inflation and supergravity. In this paper we show that it is…
Flat directions are a generic feature of the scalar potential in supersymmetric gauge field theories. They can arise, for example, from D-terms associated with an extra abelian gauge symmetry. Even when supersymmetry is broken softly, there…
Quasi-conformal models are an appealing scenario that can offer naturally a strongly supercooled phase transition and a period of thermal inflation in the early Universe. A crucial aspect for the viability of these models is how the…
We show that a contribution to the total curvature perturbation may be due to the presence of flat directions in supersymmetric models. It is generated at the first os- cillation of the flat direction condensate when the latter relaxes to…
It is tempting to inflate along one of the many flat directions that arise in supersymmetric theories. The required flatness of the potential to obtain sufficient inflation and to not overproduce density fluctuations occurs naturally.…
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 discuss how the inflation induced supersymmetry breaking affects the flat directions of SUSY vacua. We show that under general assumptions all gauge nonsinglet fields, parameterizing flat directions (and in particular squarks and…
We consider the role of supersymmetric flat directions in reheating the Universe after inflation. One or more flat directions can develop large vevs during inflation, which can potentially affect reheating by slowing down scattering…
We show that it is possible to combine an early phase of String Gas Cosmology which can explain the origin of the observed structures on cosmological scales with a short later period of power law inflation which creates spatial flatness.…
We discuss the production of gravity waves from the fragmentation of a supersymmetric condensate in the early universe. Supersymmetry predicts the existence of flat directions in the potential. At the end of inflation, the scalar fields…
A variety of mechanisms in the early Universe lead to the generation of gravitational waves (GWs). We introduce here a novel source of GWs generated by vacuum fluctuations after inflation. Given that gravitons are minimally coupled…
We review the cosmological implications of the flat directions of the Minimally Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM). We describe how field condensates are created along the flat directions because of inflationary fluctuations. The…
In the pre-reheating era, following cosmic inflation and preceding radiation domination, the energy density may be dominated by an oscillating massive scalar condensate, such as is the case for quadratic chaotic inflation. We have found in…
We compute the nonperturbative decay of supersymmetric flat directions due to their D-term potential. Flat directions can develop large vacuum expectation values (vevs) during inflation, and, if they are long-lived, this can strongly affect…