In models of fermions coupled to gauge fields certain current-conservation laws are violated by Bell-Jackiw anomalies. In perturbation theory the total charge corresponding to such currents seems to be still conserved, but here it is shown that nonperturbative effects can give rise to interactions that violate the charge conservation. One consequence is baryon and lepton number nonconservation in $V\ensuremath{-}A$ gauge theories with charm. Another is the nonvanishing mass squared of the $\ensuremath{\eta}$.

/pdf/symmetry-breaking-through-bell-jackiw-anomalies-3edb4dollt.pdf

Symmetry Breaking through Bell-Jackiw Anomalies

The Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model

The Standard Model Higgs potential becomes unstable at large field values. After clarifying the issue of gauge dependence of the effective potential, we study the cosmological evolution of the Higgs field in presence of this instability throughout inflation, reheating and the present epoch. We conclude that anti-de Sitter patches in which the Higgs field lies at its true vacuum are lethal for our universe. From this result, we derive upper bounds on the Hubble constant during inflation, which depend on the reheating temperature and on the Higgs coupling to the scalar curvature or to the inflaton. Finally we study how a speculative link between Higgs meta-stability and consistence of quantum gravity leads to a sharp prediction for the Higgs and top masses, which is consistent with measured values.

/pdf/the-cosmological-higgstory-of-the-vacuum-instability-2yz266fm09.pdf

The cosmological Higgstory of the vacuum instability

The importance of being warm (during inflation)

Reheating is a transition era after the end of inflation, during which the inflaton is converted into the particles that populate the Universe at later times. No direct cosmological observables are normally traceable to this period of reheating. Indirect bounds can however be derived. One possibility is to consider cosmological evolution for observable CMB scales from the time of Hubble crossing to the present time. Depending upon the model, the duration and final temperature after reheating, as well as its equation of state, may be directly linked to inflationary observables. For single-field inflationary models, if we approximate reheating by a constant equation of state, one can derive relations between the reheating duration (or final temperature), its equation of state parameter, and the scalar power spectrum amplitude and spectral index. While this is a simple approximation, by restricting the equation of state to lie within a broad physically allowed range, one can in turn bracket an allowed range of ns and r for these models. The added constraints can help break degeneracies between inflation models that otherwise overlap in their predictions for ns and r.

http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1475-7516/2015/04/047/pdf

Reheating predictions in single field inflation

We show that dissipative effects have a significant impact on the evolution of cosmological scalar fields, leading to friction, entropy production and field fluctuations. We explicitly compute the dissipation coefficient for different scalar fields within the standard model and some of its most widely considered extensions, in different parametric regimes. We describe the generic consequences of fluctuationdissipation dynamics in the postinflationary universe, focusing in particular on friction and particle production, and analyze in detail two important effects. First, we show that dissipative friction delays the process of spontaneous symmetry breaking and may even damp the motion of a Higgs field sufficiently to induce a late period of warm inflation. Along with dissipative entropy production, this may parametrically dilute the abundance of dangerous thermal relics. Second, we show that dissipation can generate the observed baryon asymmetry without symmetry restoration, and we develop in detail a model of dissipative leptogenesis. We further show that this generically leads to characteristic baryon isocurvature perturbations that can be tested with cosmic microwave background observations. This work provides a fundamental framework to go beyond the leading thermal equilibrium semiclassical approximation in addressing fundamental problems in modern cosmology.

/pdf/fluctuation-dissipation-dynamics-of-cosmological-scalar-3yn1naiw8d.pdf

Fluctuation-dissipation dynamics of cosmological scalar fields

The recent Planck results and future releases on the horizon present a key opportunity to address a fundamental question in inflationary cosmology of whether primordial density perturbations have a quantum or thermal origin, i.e. whether particle production may have significant effects during inflation. Warm inflation provides a natural arena to address this issue, with interactions between the scalar inflaton and other degrees of freedom leading to dissipative entropy production and associated thermal fluctuations. In this context, we present relations between CMB observables that can be directly tested against observational data. In particular, we show that the presence of a thermal bath warmer than the Hubble scale during inflation decreases the tensor-to-scalar ratio with respect to the conventional prediction in supercooled inflation, yielding r < 8|nt|, where nt is the tensor spectral index. Focusing on supersymmetric models at low temperatures, we determine consistency relations between the observables characterizing the spectrum of adiabatic scalar and tensor modes, both for generic potentials and particular canonical examples, and which we compare with the WMAP and Planck results. Finally, we include the possibility of producing the observed baryon asymmetry during inflation through dissipative effects, thereby generating baryon isocurvature modes that can be easily accommodated by the Planck data.

/pdf/warming-up-for-planck-5d8fvx3a9q.pdf

Warming up for Planck

In supersymmetric models of warm inflation, the large temperature of the radiation bath produced by the dissipative motion of the inflaton field may induce a significant thermal abundance of potentially dangerous gravitinos. While previous discussions of this problem focused on gravitino production only at the end of warm inflation, similarly to conventional reheating scenarios, we study the full evolution of the gravitino abundance during and after inflation for simple monomial potentials, taking into account the enhanced gravitino and possibly gaugino masses due to supersymmetry breaking during inflation and the smooth transition into a radiation-dominated era. We find, on one hand, that the continuous thermal production increases the gravitino yield, although, on the other hand, ``freeze-out'' occurs at temperatures much lower than previously estimated. Moreover, for sufficiently strong dissipation, which allows for sub-Planckian inflaton values, the lower radiation temperature significantly alleviates and possibly solves the gravitino problem, with a baryon asymmetry being nevertheless produced through dissipative effects. Our analysis may also be relevant to standard reheating as an oscillating inflaton will also change the gravitino mass, potentially modifying the produced gravitino yield.

Gravitino cosmology in supersymmetric warm inflation

The recent Planck results and future releases on the horizon present a key opportunity to address a fundamental question in inflationary cosmology of whether primordial density perturbations have a quantum or thermal origin, i.e. whether particle production may have significant effects during inflation. Warm inflation provides a natural arena to address this issue, with interactions between the scalar inflaton and other degrees of freedom leading to dissipative entropy production and associated thermal fluctuations. In this context, we present relations between CMB observables that can be directly tested against observational data. In particular, we show that the presence of a thermal bath warmer than the Hubble scale during inflation decreases the tensor-to-scalar ratio with respect to the conventional prediction in supercooled inflation, yielding $r< 8|n_t|$, where $n_t$ is the tensor spectral index. Focusing on supersymmetric models at low temperatures, we determine consistency relations between the observables characterizing the spectrum of adiabatic scalar and tensor modes, both for generic potentials and particular canonical examples, and which we compare with the WMAP and Planck results. Finally, we include the possibility of producing the observed baryon asymmetry during inflation through dissipative effects, thereby generating baryon isocurvature modes that can be easily accommodated by the Planck data.

/pdf/warming-up-for-planck-z2ziur2ni3.pdf

Sam Bartrum

Papers

The importance of being warm (during inflation)

Fluctuation-dissipation dynamics of cosmological scalar fields

Warming up for Planck

Gravitino cosmology in supersymmetric warm inflation

Warming up for Planck