Fermion Self-Energy during Inflation
Astrophysics
2007-05-23 v1 High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
High Energy Physics - Theory
Abstract
I report on work done with Tomislav Prokopec (Heidelberg, CERN). We computed the one loop self-energy of a massless fermion during inflation. When the fermion is free it experiences only a small amount of inflationary particle production owing to the conformal invariance of its classical action. However, when the fermion is Yukawa coupled to a massless, minimally coupled scalar, there is copious production of fermions. In a more complicated model this effect might generate baryon asymmetry during inflation.
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0307269,
title = {Fermion Self-Energy during Inflation},
author = {R. P. Woodard},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0307269},
year = {2007}
}
Comments
12 pages, LaTeX 2epsilon, 2 figures, Proceedings of XII International Conference on Selected Problems of Modern Physics, Dubna, June 8-11, 2003