Higgsed Gauge-flation

Journal Article · 28 August 2017 · Journal of High Energy Physics (Online)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP08(2017)130 · OSTI ID:1425950

Adshead, Peter ^[1]; Sfakianakis, Evangelos I. ^[2]

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1. Univ. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL (United States). Dept. of Physics; Department of Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, U.S.A
2. Univ. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL (United States). Dept. of Physics

We study a variant of Gauge-flation where the gauge symmetry is spontaneously broken by a Higgs sector. Here, we work in the Stueckelberg limit and demonstrate that the dynamics remain (catastrophically) unstable for cases where the gauge field masses satisfy γ< 2, where γ= g² 2=ψH², g is the gauge coupling, ψ is the gauge field vacuum expectation value, and H is the Hubble rate. We compute the spectrum of density uctuations and gravitational waves, and show that the model can produce observationally viable spectra. The background gauge field texture violates parity, resulting in a chiral gravitational wave spectrum. This arises due to an exponential enhancement of one polarization of the spin-2 fluctuation of the gauge field. Higgsed Gauge-flation can produce observable gravitational waves at in inflationary energy scales well below the GUT scale.

• Research Organization: Univ. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE; University of Illinois
• Grant/Contract Number: SC0015655
• OSTI ID: 1425950
• Journal Information: Journal of High Energy Physics (Online), Journal Name: Journal of High Energy Physics (Online) Journal Issue: 8 Vol. 2017; ISSN 1029-8479
• Publisher: Springer BerlinCopyright Statement
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English