Constraining modular inflation in the MSSM from giant Q-ball formation
- Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Israel)
- Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706 (United States)
We discuss constraints on which flat directions can have large vacuum expectation values (VEVs) after inflation. We show that only flat directions which are not charged under B-L and develop positive pressure due to renormalization group effects can have large VEVs of order M{sub Pl}. For example, within the MSSM only the H{sub u}H{sub d} flat direction is found to be viable. This strongly constrains the embedding of a broad class of inflationary models in the MSSM or some other supersymmetric extension of the SM. For flat directions with negative pressure, the condensate fragments into very large Q-balls which we call Q-giants. We discuss the formation, evolution and reheating of these Q-giants and show that they decay too late. The analysis requires taking into account new phases of the flat directions, which have been overlooked in the formation and dynamics of the Q-balls. These constraints may be ameliorated by invoking a short period of thermal inflation. The latter, however, is viable in a very narrow window of parameter space and requires fine tuning.
- OSTI ID:
- 20782630
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review. D, Particles Fields, Vol. 73, Issue 6; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.73.063526; (c) 2006 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0556-2821
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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