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Initial Conditions for Critical Higgs Inflation

It has been pointed out that a large non-minimal coupling ξ between the Higgs and the Ricci scalar can source higher derivative operators, which may change the predictions of Higgs inflation. A variant, called critical Higgs inflation, employs the near-criticality of the top mass to introduce an inf...

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Autor principal: Salvio, Alberto
Lenguaje:eng
Publicado: 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2018.03.009
http://cds.cern.ch/record/2297469
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author Salvio, Alberto
author_facet Salvio, Alberto
author_sort Salvio, Alberto
collection CERN
description It has been pointed out that a large non-minimal coupling ξ between the Higgs and the Ricci scalar can source higher derivative operators, which may change the predictions of Higgs inflation. A variant, called critical Higgs inflation, employs the near-criticality of the top mass to introduce an inflection point in the potential and lower drastically the value of ξ . We here study whether critical Higgs inflation can occur even if the pre-inflationary initial conditions do not satisfy the slow-roll behavior (retaining translation and rotation symmetries). A positive answer is found: inflation turns out to be an attractor and therefore no fine-tuning of the initial conditions is necessary. A very large initial Higgs time-derivative (as compared to the potential energy density) is compensated by a moderate increase in the initial field value. These conclusions are reached by solving the exact Higgs equation without using the slow-roll approximation. This also allows us to consistently treat the inflection point, where the standard slow-roll approximation breaks down. Here we make use of an approach that is independent of the UV completion of gravity, by taking initial conditions that always involve sub-planckian energies.
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spelling cern-22974692021-05-03T20:15:36Zdoi:10.1016/j.physletb.2018.03.009http://cds.cern.ch/record/2297469engSalvio, AlbertoInitial Conditions for Critical Higgs Inflationhep-phParticle Physics - PhenomenologyIt has been pointed out that a large non-minimal coupling ξ between the Higgs and the Ricci scalar can source higher derivative operators, which may change the predictions of Higgs inflation. A variant, called critical Higgs inflation, employs the near-criticality of the top mass to introduce an inflection point in the potential and lower drastically the value of ξ . We here study whether critical Higgs inflation can occur even if the pre-inflationary initial conditions do not satisfy the slow-roll behavior (retaining translation and rotation symmetries). A positive answer is found: inflation turns out to be an attractor and therefore no fine-tuning of the initial conditions is necessary. A very large initial Higgs time-derivative (as compared to the potential energy density) is compensated by a moderate increase in the initial field value. These conclusions are reached by solving the exact Higgs equation without using the slow-roll approximation. This also allows us to consistently treat the inflection point, where the standard slow-roll approximation breaks down. Here we make use of an approach that is independent of the UV completion of gravity, by taking initial conditions that always involve sub-planckian energies.It has been pointed out that a large non-minimal coupling $\xi$ between the Higgs and the Ricci scalar can source higher derivative operators, which may change the predictions of Higgs inflation. A variant, called critical Higgs inflation, employs the near-criticality of the top mass to introduce an inflection point in the potential and lower drastically the value of $\xi$. We here study whether critical Higgs inflation can occur even if the pre-inflationary initial conditions do not satisfy the slow-roll behaviour (retaining translation and rotation symmetries). A positive answer is found: inflation turns out to be an attractor and therefore no fine-tuning of the initial conditions is necessary. A very large initial Higgs time-derivative (as compared to the potential energy density) is compensated by a moderate increase in the initial field value. These conclusions are reached by solving the exact Higgs equation without using the slow-roll approximation. This also allows us to treat consistently the inflection point, where the standard slow-roll approximation breaks down. Here we make use of an approach that is independent of the UV completion of gravity, by taking initial conditions that always involve sub-planckian energies.CERN-TH-2017-261arXiv:1712.04477oai:cds.cern.ch:22974692017-12-12
spellingShingle hep-ph
Particle Physics - Phenomenology
Salvio, Alberto
Initial Conditions for Critical Higgs Inflation
title Initial Conditions for Critical Higgs Inflation
title_full Initial Conditions for Critical Higgs Inflation
title_fullStr Initial Conditions for Critical Higgs Inflation
title_full_unstemmed Initial Conditions for Critical Higgs Inflation
title_short Initial Conditions for Critical Higgs Inflation
title_sort initial conditions for critical higgs inflation
topic hep-ph
Particle Physics - Phenomenology
url https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2018.03.009
http://cds.cern.ch/record/2297469
work_keys_str_mv AT salvioalberto initialconditionsforcriticalhiggsinflation