Radiative Lifting of Flat Directions of the MSSM in de Sitter Background

Abstract

The one-loop effective potential for a charged scalar field in de Sitter background is studied. We derive an approximate form for the gauge boson propagator with a general covariant gauge-fixing parameter ξ. This expression is used to derive an explicitly gauge-invariant effective potential, which agrees with earlier results obtained in Landau gauge. Adding the scalar- and fermion-loop contributions, that arise in a supersymmetric Higgs model, we find that the effective potential is vanishing to first order in the Hubble rate H^2. The contribution due to a chiral multiplet running in the loop is however non-vanishing. When applied to a flat direction of the MSSM with VEV w, a logarithmically running correction of order $h^2{H}^2{w}^2$ arises, where h is Yukawa coupling. This is of particular importance for D-term inflation or models endowed with a Heisenberg symmetry, where Hubble scale mass terms for flat directions from supergravity corrections are absent.

14 pages

References in corpus (5)

• Leading Log Solution for Inflationary Yukawa
• Anatomy of F_D-Term Hybrid Inflation
• One Loop Corrected Mode Functions for SQED during Inflation
• The Fate of SUSY Flat Directions and their Role in Reheating
• Ultraviolet Regularisation in de Sitter Space

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Stochastic Inflationary Scalar Electrodynamics
• Baryogenesis from the amplification of vacuum fluctuations during inflation