Topics in inflationary cosmologies

Technical Report · Tue Apr 01 04:00:00 EST 1986

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/5525131· OSTI ID:5525131

Mahajan, S

Several aspects of inflationary cosmologies are discussed. An introduction to the standard hot big bang cosmological model is reviewed, and some of the problems associated with it are presented. A short review of the proposals for solving the cosmological conundrums of the big bang model is presented. Old and the new inflationary scenarios are discussed and shown to be unacceptable. Some alternative scenarios especially those using supersymmetry are reviewed briefly. A study is given of inflationary models where the same set of fields that breaks supersymmetry is also responsible for inflation. In these models, the scale of supersymmetry breaking is related to the slope of the potential near the origin and can thus be kept low. It is found that a supersymmetry breaking scale of the order of the weak breaking scale. The cosmology obtained from the simplest of such models is discussed in detail and it is shown that there are no particular problems except a low reheating temperature and a violation of the thermal constraint. A possible solution to the thermal constraint problem is given by introducing a second field, and the role played by this second field in the scenario is discussed. An alternative mechanism for the generation of baryon number within the framework of supergravity inflationary models is studied using the gravitational couplings of the heavy fields with the hidden sector (the sector which breaks supersymmetry). This mechanism is applied to two specific models - one with and one without supersymmetry breaking. The baryon to entropy ratio is found to be dependent on parameters which are model dependent. Finally, the effect of direct coupling between the two sectors on results is related, 88 refs., 6 figs.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Berkeley Lab., CA (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC03-76SF00098
• OSTI ID: 5525131
• Report Number(s): LBL-21436; ON: DE86012015
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

640106* -- Astrophysics & Cosmology-- Cosmology
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
BARYON NUMBER
COSMOLOGICAL MODELS
DATA
ENTROPY
INFLATION
INFORMATION
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
NUMERICAL DATA
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
SCALAR FIELDS
SUPERSYMMETRY
SYMMETRY
SYMMETRY BREAKING
THEORETICAL DATA
THERMODYNAMIC PROPERTIES