Large Density Perturbations from Reheating to Standard Model particles due to the Dynamics of the Higgs Boson during Inflation

Abstract

Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) observations are used to constrain reheating to Standard Model (SM) particles after a period of inflation. As a light spectator field, the SM Higgs boson acquires large field values from its quantum fluctuations during inflation, gives masses to SM particles that vary from one Hubble patch to another, and thereby produces large density fluctuations. We consider both perturbative and resonant decay of the inflaton to SM particles. For the case of perturbative decay from coherent oscillations of the inflaton after high scale inflation, we find strong constraints on the reheat temperature for the inflaton decay into heavy SM particles. For the case of resonant particle production (preheating) to (Higgsed) SM gauge bosons, we find temperature fluctuations larger than observed in the CMB for a range of gauge coupling that includes those found in the SM and conclude that such preheating cannot be the main source of reheating the Universe after inflation.

24 pages, 10 figures, references added, minor changes

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Cited by in corpus (6)

• Inflationary interpretation of the stochastic gravitational wave background signal detected by pulsar timing array experiments
• Primordial gravitational waves from NANOGrav: a broken power-law approach
• Catastrophic Production of Slow Gravitinos
• Towards a reliable calculation of relic radiation from primordial gravitational waves
• Primordial non-Gaussianity from the Effects of the Standard Model Higgs during Reheating after Inflation
• Gravitational waves from a curvature-induced phase transition of a Higgs-portal dark matter sector