Sami Nurmi

Spacetime curvature and the Higgs stability during inflation

It has been claimed that the electroweak vacuum may be unstable during inflation due to large fluctuations of the order H in the case of a high inflationary scale as suggested by BICEP2. We compute the standard model Higgs effective potential including UV-induced curvature corrections at one-loop level. We find that for a high inflationary scale a large curvature mass is generated due to renormalization group running of nonminimal coupling ξ, which either stabilizes the potential against fluctuations for ξEW≳6×10(-2), or destabilizes it for ξEW≲2×10(-2) when the generated curvature mass is negative. Only in the narrow intermediate region may the effect of the curvature mass be significantly smaller.

Non-Gaussianity in curvaton models with nearly quadratic potentials

We consider curvaton models with potentials that depart slightly from the quadratic form. We show that although such a small departure does not significantly modify the Gaussian part of the curvature perturbation, it can have a pronounced effect on the level of non-Gaussianity. We find that unlike in the quadratic case, the limit of small non-Gaussianity, , is quite possible even with small curvaton energy density . Furthermore, non-Gaussianity does not imply any strict bounds on r, but the bounds depend on the assumptions about the higher order terms in the curvaton potential.

Scale dependence of local fNL

We consider possible scale-dependence of the non-linearity parameter fNL in local and quasi-local models of non-Gaussian primordial density perturbations. In the simplest model where the primordial perturbations are a quadratic local function of a single Gaussian field then fNL is scale-independent by construction. However scale-dependence can arise due to either a local function of more than one Gaussian field, or due to non-linear evolution of modes after horizon-exit during inflation. We show that the scale dependence of fNL is typically first order in slow-roll. For some models this may be observable with experiments such as Planck provided that fNL is close to the current observational bounds.

Scale-dependent non-Gaussianity probes inflationary physics

We calculate the scale dependence of the bispectrum and trispectrum in (quasi) local models of non-Gaussian primordial density perturbations, and characterize this scale dependence in terms of new observable parameters. They can help to discriminate between models of inflation, since they are sensitive to properties of the inflationary physics that are not probed by the standard observables. We find consistency relations between these parameters in certain classes of models. We apply our results to a scenario of modulated reheating, showing that the scale dependence of non-Gaussianity can be significant. We also discuss the scale dependence of the bispectrum and trispectrum, in cases where one varies the shape as well as the overall scale of the figure under consideration. We conclude providing a formulation of the curvature perturbation in real space, which generalises the standard local form by dropping the assumption that fNL and gNL are constants.

Higgs dynamics during inflation

We investigate inflationary Higgs dynamics and constraints on the Standard Model parameters assuming the Higgs potential, computed to next-to-next leading order precision, is not significantly affected by new physics. For a high inflationary scale H ~ 1014 GeV suggested by BICEP2, we show that the Higgs is a light field subject to fluctuations which affect its dynamics in a stochastic way. Starting from its inflationary value the Higgs must be able to relax to the Standard Model vacuum well before the electroweak scale. We find that this is consistent with the high inflationary scale only if the top mass mt is significantly below the best fit value. The region within 2σ errors of the measured mt, the Higgs mass mh and the strong coupling αs and consistent with inflation covers approximately the interval mt171.8 GeV+0.538(mh−125.5 GeV) with 125.4 GeVmh126.3 GeV. If the low top mass region could be definitively ruled out, the observed high inflationary scale alone, if confirmed, would seem to imply new physics necessarily modifying the Standard Model Higgs potential below the inflationary scale.

On the divergences of inflationary superhorizon perturbations

We discuss the infrared divergences that appear to plague cosmological perturbation theory. We show that, within the stochastic framework, they are regulated by eternal inflation so that the theory predicts finite fluctuations. Using the ΔN formalism to one loop, we demonstrate that the infrared modes can be absorbed into additive constants and the coefficients of the diagrammatic expansion for the connected parts of two-and three-point functions of the curvature perturbation. As a result, the use of any infrared cutoff below the scale of eternal inflation is permitted, provided that the background fields are appropriately redefined. The natural choice for the infrared cutoff would, of course, be the present horizon; other choices manifest themselves in the running of the correlators. We also demonstrate that it is possible to define observables that are renormalization-group-invariant. As an example, we derive a non-perturbative, infrared finite and renormalization point-independent relation between the two-point correlators of the curvature perturbation for the case of the free single field.

Non-Gaussian fingerprints of self-interacting curvaton

We investigate non-Gaussianities in self-interacting curvaton models treating both renormalizable and non-renormalizable polynomial interactions. We scan the parameter space systematically and compute numerically the non-linearity parameters f{sub NL} and g{sub NL}. We find that even in the interaction dominated regime there are large regions consistent with current observable bounds. Whenever the interactions dominate, we discover significant deviations from the relations f{sub NL} ∼ r{sub dec}{sup −1} and g{sub NL} ∼ r{sub dec}{sup −1} valid for quadratic curvaton potentials, where r{sub dec} measures the curvaton contribution to the total energy density at the time of its decay. Even if r{sub dec} || 1, there always exists regions with f{sub NL} ∼ 0 since the sign of f{sub NL} oscillates as a function of the parameters. While g{sub NL} can also change sign, typically g{sub NL} is non-zero in the low-f{sub NL} regions. Hence, for some parameters the non-Gaussian statistics is dominated by g{sub NL} rather than by f{sub NL}. Due to self-interactions, both the relative signs of f{sub NL} and g{sub NL} and the functional relation between them is typically modified from the quadratic case, offering a possible experimental test of the curvaton interactions.

Spacetime curvature and Higgs stability after inflation

We investigate the dynamics of the Higgs field at the end of inflation in the minimal scenario consisting of an inflaton field coupled to the standard model only through the nonminimal gravitational coupling ξ of the Higgs field. Such a coupling is required by renormalization of the standard model in curved space, and in the current scenario also by vacuum stability during high-scale inflation. We find that for ξ≳1, rapidly changing spacetime curvature at the end of inflation leads to significant production of Higgs particles, potentially triggering a transition to a negative-energy Planck scale vacuum state and causing an immediate collapse of the Universe.

Generation of the Higgs condensate and its decay after inflation

We investigate the dynamics of the Standard Model higgs with a minimal coupling to gravity during and after inflation. In the regime where the Standard Model vacuum is stable, we find that the higgs becomes a light spectator field after about 30 efolds of inflation, irrespectively of its initial value. Once the higgs has become light, its root-mean-square value h* relaxes to equilibrium in about 85 efolds for the inflationary scale of H* = 104 GeV and in 20 efolds for H* = 1010 GeV. The equilibrium value is given by h* ~ 0.36λ*−1/4H*, where λ* = 0.09...0.0005 is the higgs self coupling at the scales H* = 104...1010 GeV. We show that the main decay channel of the higgs condensate after inflation is the resonant production of Standard Model gauge bosons. For a set of parameters we find that a significant part of the condensate has decayed in between 340 and 630 Hubble times after the onset of higgs oscillations, depending on H* in a non-trivial way. The higgs perturbations correspond to isocurvature modes during inflation but they could generate significant adiabatic perturbations at a later stage for example through a modulation of the reheating stage. However, this requires that the inflaton(s) decay no later than a few hundred Hubble times after the onset of higgs oscillations.

Non-Gaussianity from resonant curvaton decay

We calculate curvature perturbations in the scenario in which the curvaton field decays into another scalar field via parametric resonance. As a result of a nonlinear stage at the end of the resonance, standard perturbative calculation techniques fail in this case. Instead, we use lattice field theory simulations and the separate universe approximation to calculate the curvature perturbation as a nonlinear function of the curvaton field. For the parameters tested, the generated perturbations are highly non-Gaussian and not well approximated by the usual fNL parameterisation. Resonant decay plays an important role in the curvaton scenario and can have a substantial effect on the resulting perturbations.