The problem with false vacuum Higgs inflation

doi:https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2014/06/039

Title: The problem with false vacuum Higgs inflation

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Abstract

We investigate the possibility of using the only known fundamental scalar, the Higgs, as an inflaton with minimal coupling to gravity. The peculiar appearance of a plateau or a false vacuum in the renormalised effective scalar potential suggests that the Higgs might drive inflation. For the case of a false vacuum we use an additional singlet scalar field, motivated by the strong CP problem, and its coupling to the Higgs to lift the barrier allowing for a graceful exit from inflation by mimicking hybrid inflation. We find that this scenario is incompatible with current measurements of the Higgs mass and the QCD coupling constant and conclude that the Higgs can only be the inflaton in more complicated scenarios.

Authors:

Fairbairn, Malcolm; Grothaus, Philipp; Hogan, Robert ^[1]

Physics, Kings College London, Strand, London, WC2R 2LS (United Kingdom)

Publication Date:: 2014-06-01

OSTI Identifier:: 22373508

Resource Type:: Journal Article

Journal Name:: Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics

Additional Journal Information:: Journal Volume: 2014; Journal Issue: 06; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); Journal ID: ISSN 1475-7516

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Subject:: 79 ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY; COSMOLOGICAL INFLATION; COUPLING CONSTANTS; GRAVITATION; HIGGS MODEL; MASS; POTENTIALS; QUANTUM CHROMODYNAMICS; SCALAR FIELDS

Citation Formats


                    Fairbairn, Malcolm, Grothaus, Philipp, and Hogan, Robert. The problem with false vacuum Higgs inflation.  United States: N. p., 2014. 
        Web.  doi:10.1088/1475-7516/2014/06/039.

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                    Fairbairn, Malcolm, Grothaus, Philipp, & Hogan, Robert. The problem with false vacuum Higgs inflation.  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2014/06/039

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                    Fairbairn, Malcolm, Grothaus, Philipp, and Hogan, Robert. Sun .  
        "The problem with false vacuum Higgs inflation".  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2014/06/039.

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@article{osti_22373508,

  title        = {The problem with false vacuum Higgs inflation},

  author       = {Fairbairn, Malcolm and Grothaus, Philipp and Hogan, Robert},

  abstractNote = {We investigate the possibility of using the only known fundamental scalar, the Higgs, as an inflaton with minimal coupling to gravity. The peculiar appearance of a plateau or a false vacuum in the renormalised effective scalar potential suggests that the Higgs might drive inflation. For the case of a false vacuum we use an additional singlet scalar field, motivated by the strong CP problem, and its coupling to the Higgs to lift the barrier allowing for a graceful exit from inflation by mimicking hybrid inflation. We find that this scenario is incompatible with current measurements of the Higgs mass and the QCD coupling constant and conclude that the Higgs can only be the inflaton in more complicated scenarios.},

  doi          = {10.1088/1475-7516/2014/06/039},

  url          = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/22373508},
  journal      = {Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics},

  issn         = {1475-7516},

  number       = 06,

  volume       = 2014,

  place        = {United States},

  year         = {2014},

  month        = {6}

}

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