Engineering topics

Postma, Marieke

Publications and source records attributed to Postma, Marieke.

7 records

DOE OSTI2017

Electroweak stability and non-minimal coupling

The measured values of the Higgs and top quark mass indicate that the electroweak vacuum is metastable if there is no new physics below the Planck scale. This is at odds with a period of high scale inflation. A non-minimal coupling between the Higgs field and the Ricci scalar can stabilize the vacuum as it generates a large effective Higgs mass during inflation. We consider the effect of this coupling during preheating, when Higgs modes can be produced very efficiently due to the oscillating Ricci scalar. We compute their effect on the effective potential and the energy density. The Higgs excitations are defined with respect to the adiabatic vacuum. We study the adiabaticity conditions and find that the dependence of our results on the choice of the order of the adiabatic vacuum increases with time. For large enough coupling particle production is so efficient that the Higgs decays to the true vacuum before this is an issue. However, for smaller values of the Higgs-curvature coupling no definite statements can be made as the vacuum dependence is large.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2016

Quantum corrections in Higgs inflation: the Standard Model case

We compute the one-loop renormalization group equations for Standard Model Higgs inflation. The calculation is done in the Einstein frame, using a covariant formalism for the multi-field system. All counterterms, and thus the betafunctions, can be extracted from the radiative corrections to the two-point functions; the calculation of higher n-point functions then serves as a consistency check of the approach. We find that the theory is renormalizable in the effective field theory sense in the small, mid and large field regime. In the large field regime our results differ slightly from those found in the literature, due to a different treatment of the Goldstone bosons.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2014

Quantum corrections in Higgs inflation: the real scalar case

We present a critical discussion of quantum corrections, renormalisation, and the computation of the beta functions and the effective potential in Higgs inflation. In contrast with claims in the literature, we find no evidence for a disagreement between the Jordan and Einstein frames, even at the quantum level. For clarity of discussion we concentrate on the case of a real scalar Higgs. We first review the classical calculation and then discuss the back reaction of gravity. We compute the beta functions for the Higgs quartic coupling and non-minimal coupling constant. Here, the mid-field regime is non-renormalisable, but we are able to give an upper bound on the 1-loop corrections to the effective potential. We show that, in computing the effective potential, the Jordan and Einstein frames are compatible if all mass scales are transformed between the two frames. As such, it is consistent to take a constant cutoff in either the Jordan or Einstein frame, and both prescriptions yield the same result for the effective potential. Our results are extended to the case of a complex scalar Higgs.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2012

Effective action for the Abelian Higgs model in FLRW

We compute the divergent contributions to the one-loop action of the U(1) Abelian Higgs model. The calculation allows for a Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker space-time and a time-dependent expectation value for the scalar field. Treating the time-dependent masses as two-point interactions, we use the in-in formalism to compute the first, second and third order graphs that contribute quadratic and logarithmic divergences to the effective scalar action. Working in R{sub ξ} gauge we show that the result is gauge invariant upon using the equations of motion.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2012

Sgoldstino inflation

We discuss the possibility that inflation is driven by the sgoldstino, the superpartner of the goldstino. Unlike in generic supergravity scenarios, the sgoldstino decouples from all other fields in the theory, which allows for a simple and robust inflationary model. We argue that the two-field model given by this single complex scalar correctly captures the full multifield inflationary phenomenology. On the other hand, the assumption of stability, along the entire inflationary trajectory, of the supersymmetry-preserving sector that is integrated out leads to supplementary constraints on the parent supergravity. We investigate small field, large field and hybrid sgoldstino inflation scenarios and provide some working examples. They are subject to the usual fine-tuning issues that are common to all supergravity models of inflation. We comment on some other recently proposed sgoldstino inflation models.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2011

A no-go for no-go theorems prohibiting cosmic acceleration in extra dimensional models

A four-dimensional effective theory that arises as the low-energy limit of some extra-dimensional model is constrained by the higher dimensional Einstein equations. Steinhardt and Wesley use this to show that accelerated expansion in our four large dimensions can only be transient in a large class of Kaluza-Klein models that satisfy the (higher dimensional) null energy condition [1]. We point out that these no-go theorems are based on a rather ad-hoc assumption on the metric, without which no strong statements can be made.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2011

Goldstone bosons and a dynamical Higgs field

Higgs inflation uses the gauge variant Higgs field as the inflaton. During inflation the Higgs field is displaced from its minimum, which results in associated Goldstone bosons that are apparently massive. Working in a minimally coupled U(1) toy model, we use the closed-time-path formalism to show that these Goldstone bosons do contribute to the one-loop effective action. Therefore the computation in unitary gauge gives incorrect results. Our expression for the effective action is gauge invariant upon using the background equations of motion.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗