A1 Journal article (refereed)
Postinationary vacuum instability and Higgs-inflaton couplings (2016)

Enqvist, K., Karciauskas, M., Lebedev, O., Rusak, S., & Zatta, M. (2016). Postinationary vacuum instability and Higgs-inflaton couplings. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 11, Article 025. https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2016/11/025

JYU authors or editors

Publication details

All authors or editors: Enqvist, Kari; Karciauskas, Mindaugas; Lebedev, Oleg; Rusak, Stanislav; Zatta, Marco

Journal or series: Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics

ISSN: 1475-7516

eISSN: 1475-7516

Publication year: 2016

Volume: 11

Issue number: 0

Article number: 025

Publisher: Institute of Physics Publishing Ltd.; Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati (SISSA)

Publication country: United Kingdom

Publication language: English

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2016/11/025

Publication open access: Openly available

Publication channel open access: Open Access channel

Publication is parallel published (JYX): https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/52294

Abstract

The Higgs-inflaton coupling plays an important role in the Higgs field dynamics in the early Universe. Even a tiny coupling generated at loop level can have a dramatic effect on the fate of the electroweak vacuum. Such Higgs-inflaton interaction is present both at the trilinear and quartic levels in realistic reheating models. In this work, we examine the Higgs dynamics during the preheating epoch, focusing on the effects of the parametric and tachyonic resonances. We use lattice simulations and other numerical tools in our studies. We find that the resonances can induce large fluctuations of the Higgs field which destabilize the electroweak vacuum. Our considerations thus provide an upper bound on quartic and trilinear interactions between the Higgs and the inflaton. We conclude that there exists a favorable range of the couplings within which the Higgs field is stabilized during both inflation and preheating epochs.

Free keywords: Higgs-inflation couplings

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Ministry reporting: Yes

Reporting Year: 2016

JUFO rating: 1