Abstract
We explore in the supergravity context the possibility that a Higgs scalar may drive inflation via a non-minimal coupling to gravity characterised by a large dimensionless coupling constant. We find that this scenario is not compatible with the MSSM, but that adding a singlet field (NMSSM, or a variant thereof) can very naturally give rise to slow-roll inflation. The inflaton is necessarily contained in the doublet Higgs sector and occurs in the D-flat direction of the two Higgs doublets.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
D.S. Salopek, J.R. Bond and J.M. Bardeen, Designing density fluctuation spectra in inflation, Phys. Rev. D 40 (1989) 1753 [SPIRES].
F.L. Bezrukov and M. Shaposhnikov, The standard model Higgs boson as the inflaton, Phys. Lett. B 659 (2008) 703 [arXiv:0710.3755] [SPIRES].
A.O. Barvinsky, A.Y. Kamenshchik and A.A. Starobinsky, Inflation scenario via the standard model Higgs boson and LHC, JCAP 11 (2008) 021 [arXiv:0809.2104] [SPIRES].
A. De Simone, M.P. Hertzberg and F. Wilczek, Running inflation in the standard model, Phys. Lett. B 678 (2009) 1 [arXiv:0812.4946] [SPIRES].
F.L. Bezrukov, A. Magnin and M. Shaposhnikov, Standard model Higgs boson mass from inflation, Phys. Lett. B 675 (2009) 88 [arXiv:0812.4950] [SPIRES].
C.P. Burgess, H.M. Lee and M. Trott, Power-counting and the validity of the classical approximation during inflation, JHEP 09 (2009) 103 [arXiv:0902.4465] [SPIRES].
J.L.F. Barbon and J.R. Espinosa, On the naturalness of Higgs inflation, Phys. Rev. D 79 (2009) 081302 [arXiv:0903.0355] [SPIRES].
F. Bezrukov and M. Shaposhnikov, Standard model Higgs boson mass from inflation: two loop analysis, JHEP 07 (2009) 089 [arXiv:0904.1537] [SPIRES].
A.O. Barvinsky, A.Y. Kamenshchik, C. Kiefer, A.A. Starobinsky and C. Steinwachs, Asymptotic freedom in inflationary cosmology with a non-minimally coupled Higgs field, JCAP 12 (2009) 003 [arXiv:0904.1698] [SPIRES].
A.O. Barvinsky, A.Y. Kamenshchik, C. Kiefer, A.A. Starobinsky and C.F. Steinwachs, Higgs boson, renormalization group and cosmology, arXiv:0910.1041 [SPIRES].
N. Okada, M.U. Rehman and Q. Shafi, Running standard model inflation and type I seesaw, arXiv:0911.5073 [SPIRES].
I. Jack and H. Osborn, General background field calculations with fermion fields, Nucl. Phys. B 249 (1985) 472 [SPIRES].
I.L. Buchbinder, S.D. Odintsov and I.L. Shapiro, Effective action in quantum gravity, IOP Publishing, Bristol U.K. (1992), pag. 413.
T.E. Clark, B. Liu, S.T. Love and T. ter Veldhuis, The standard model Higgs boson-inflaton and dark matter, Phys. Rev. D 80 (2009) 075019 [arXiv:0906.5595] [SPIRES].
R.N. Lerner and J. McDonald, Gauge singlet scalar as inflaton and thermal relic dark matter, Phys. Rev. D 80 (2009) 123507 [arXiv:0909.0520] [SPIRES].
U. Ellwanger, C. Hugonie and A.M. Teixeira, The next-to-minimal supersymmetric standard model, arXiv:0910.1785 [SPIRES].
J. Wess and J. Bagger, Supersymmetry and supergravity, Princeton University Press, Princeton U.S.A. (1992), pag. 259.
D. Baumann, TASI lectures on inflation, arXiv:0907.5424 [SPIRES].
C. Panagiotakopoulos and A. Pilaftsis, Higgs scalars in the minimal non-minimal supersymmetric standard model, Phys. Rev. D 63 (2001) 055003 [hep-ph/0008268] [SPIRES].
S. Dimopoulos and H. Georgi, Softly broken supersymmetry and SU(5), Nucl. Phys. B 193 (1981) 150 [SPIRES].
L.E. Ibáñez and G.G. Ross, Low-energy predictions in supersymmetric grand unified theories, Phys. Lett. B 105 (1981) 439 [SPIRES].
M.B. Einhorn and D.R.T. Jones, The weak mixing angle and unification mass in supersymmetric SU(5), Nucl. Phys. B 196 (1982) 475 [SPIRES].
A.H. Chamseddine, R.L. Arnowitt and P. Nath, Locally supersymmetric grand unification, Phys. Rev. Lett. 49 (1982) 970 [SPIRES].
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
ArXiv ePrint: 0912.2718
Rights and permissions
Open Access This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0), which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.
About this article
Cite this article
Einhorn, M.B., Timothy Jones, D.R. Inflation with non-minimal gravitational couplings in supergravity. J. High Energ. Phys. 2010, 26 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP03(2010)026
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP03(2010)026