Unitarity-violation in generalized Higgs inflation models
- Physics Department and Helsinki Institute of Physics, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 64, FI-00014, Helsinki (Finland)
- Consortium for Fundamental Physics, Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics Group, Department of Physics, Lancaster University, LA1 4YB (United Kingdom)
Unitarity-violation presents a challenge for non-minimally coupled models of inflation based on weak-scale particle physics. We examine the energy scale of tree-level unitarity-violation in scattering processes for generalized models with multiple scalar fields where the inflaton is either a singlet scalar or the Higgs. In the limit that the non-minimal couplings are all equal (e.g. in the case of Higgs or other complex inflaton), the scale of tree-level unitarity-violation matches the existing result. However if the inflaton is a singlet, and if it has a larger non-minimal coupling than other scalars in the model, then this hierarchy increases the scale of tree-level unitarity-violation. A sufficiently strong hierarchy pushes the scale of tree-level unitarity-violation above the Planck scale. We also discuss models which attempt to resolve the issue of unitarity-violation in Higgs Inflation.
- OSTI ID:
- 22279709
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Vol. 2012, Issue 11; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1475-7516
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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