Thermal inflation and the moduli problem

Sep, 1995
28 pages
Published in:
  • Phys.Rev.D 53 (1996) 1784-1798
e-Print:
Report number:
  • LANCS-TH-9505,
  • RESCEU-16-95,
  • LANCASTER-TH-9505

Citations per year

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Abstract:
In supersymmetric theories a field can develop a vacuum expectation value M \gg 10~3\GeV, even though its mass mm is of order 10 210~2 to 10~3\GeV. The finite temperature in the early Universe can hold such a field at zero, corresponding to a false vacuum with energy density V0m 2M 2 V_0 \sim m~2 M~2 . When the temperature falls below V0 1/4V_0~{1/4}, the thermal energy density becomes negligible and an era of thermal inflation begins. It ends when the field rolls away from zero at a temperature of order mm, corresponding to of order 10 ee-folds of inflation which does not affect the density perturbation generated during ordinary inflation. Thermal inflation can solve the Polonyi/moduli problem if M M is within one or two orders of magnitude of 10~{12}\GeV. Parametric resonance may lead to rapid partial reheating giving a high enough temperature for a variety of methods of baryogenesis. One can also have double thermal inflation which can solve the Polonyi/moduli problem even more efficiently.
  • grand unified theory
  • supersymmetry
  • astrophysics
  • inflation
  • finite temperature
  • potential: flat direction
  • effective potential
  • moduli space
  • bibliography