Higgs-Palatini Inflation and Unitarity
arXiv:1012.2900 · doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2011.03.042
Abstract
In the Higgs inflation scenario the Higgs field is strongly coupled to the Ricci scalar in order to drive primordial inflation. However, in its original form in pure metric formulation of gravity, the ultraviolet (UV) cutoff of the Higgs interactions and the Hubble rate are of the same magnitude, and this makes the whole inflationary evolution dependent of the unknown UV completion of the Higgs sector. This problem, the unitarity violation, plagues the Higgs inflation scenario. In this letter we show that, in the Palatini formulation of gravitation, Higgs inflation does not suffer from unitarity violation since the UV cutoff lies parametrically much higher than the Hubble rate so that unknown UV physics does not disrupt the inflationary dynamics. Higgs-Palatini inflation, as we call it, is, therefore, UV-safe, minimal and endowed with predictive power.
14 pages, discussion enhanced, references added, accepted by PLB
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Cited by in corpus (6)
- Higgs inflation with loop corrections in the Palatini formulation
- Coleman-Weinberg linear inflation: metric vs. Palatini formulation
- Inflationary dynamics and preheating of the non-minimally coupled inflaton field in the metric and Palatini formalisms
- A new extended quintessence
- Inflation without quantum gravity
- Non-Minimal Chaotic Inflation, Peccei-Quinn Phase Transition and non-Thermal Leptogenesis