In [arXiv:1102.1513] we introduced an inflationary scenario, Non-Abelian Gauge Field Inflation or gauge-flation for short, in which slow-roll inflation is driven by non-Abelian gauge field minimally coupled to gravity. We present a more detailed analysis, both numerical and analytical, of the gauge-flation. By studying the phase diagrams of the theory, we show that getting enough number of e-folds during a slow-roll inflation is fairly robust to the choice of initial gauge field values. In addition, we present a detailed analysis of the cosmic perturbation theory in gauge-flation which has many special and interesting features compared the standard scalar-driven inflationary models. The specific gauge-flation model we study in this paper has two parameters, a cutoff scale Lambda and the gauge coupling g. Fitting our results with the current cosmological data fixes Λ\sim 10 H \sim 10^{15} GeV (H is the Hubble parameter) and g\sim 10^{-4}, which are in the natural range of parameters in generic particle physics beyond standard models. Our model also predicts a tensor-to-scalar ratio r>0.05, in the range detectable by the Planck satellite.
Inflationary models are usually based on dynamics of one or more scalar fields coupled to gravity. In this work we present a new class of inflationary models, gauge-flation or non-Abelian gauge field inflation, where slow-roll inflation is driven by a non-Abelian gauge field. This class of models are based on a gauge field theory with a generic non-Abelian gauge group minimally coupled to gravity. We then focus on a particular gauge-flation model by specifying the action for the gauge theory which allows for a successful slow-roll inflation. This model has two parameters the value of which can…
A scenario of leptogenesis was introduced in [1] which works during inflationary period within standard model of particle physics setup. In this scenario lepton number is created by the gravitational chiral anomaly which has a non-zero expectation value for models of inflation driven by pseudoscalar field(s). Here, we observe that models of inflation involving non-Abelian gauge fields, e.g. the chromo-natural inflation [2] or the gauge-flation [3], have a parity-violating tensor mode (graviton) spectrum and naturally lead to a non-vanishing expectation value for the gravitational chiral anomal…
We study an anisotropic inflation model with a gauge kinetic function for a non-abelian gauge field. We find that, in contrast to abelian models, the anisotropy can be either a prolate or an oblate type, which could lead to a different prediction from abelian models for the statistical anisotropy in the power spectrum of cosmological fluctuations. During a reheating phase, we find chaotic behaviour of the non-abelian gauge field which is caused by the nonlinear self-coupling of the gauge field. We compute a Lyapunov exponent of the chaos which turns out to be uncorrelated with the anisotropy.
Obtaining a potential flat enough to provide slow roll inflation is often difficult when gravitational effects are included. Non-abelian discrete gauge symmetries can guarantee the flatness of the inflaton potential in this case, and also provide special field values where inflation can end.
We propose a simple high-scale inflationary scenario based on a phenomenologically viable model with direct gauge mediation of low-scale supersymmetry breaking. Hybrid inflation is occurred in a hidden supersymmetry breaking sector. Two hierarchical mass scales to reconcile both high-scale inflation and gauge mediation are necessary for the stability of the metastable supersymmetry breaking vacuum. Our scenario is also natural in light of the Landau pole problem of direct gauge mediation.
Gauge-flation, non-Abelian gauge field inflation, which was introduced in arXiv:1102.1513 and analyzed more thoroughly in arXiv:1102.1932, is a model of inflation driven by non-Abelian gauge fields minimally coupled to Einstein gravity. In this model certain rotationally invariant combination of gauge fields play the role of inflaton. Recently, the chromo-natural inflation model was proposed arXiv:1202.2366 which besides the non-Abelian gauge fields also involve an axion field. In this short note we show that the model involving axions, indeed allows for various slow-roll trajectories for diff…
We study the dynamics of $SU(2)_L$ times $U(1)_Y$ electroweak gauge fields during and after Higgs inflation. In particular, we investigate configurations of the gauge fields during inflation and find the gauge fields remain topologically non-trivial. We also find that the gauge fields grow due to parametric resonances caused by oscillations of a Higgs field after inflation. We show that the Chern-Simons number also grows significantly. Interestingly, the parametric amplification gives rise to sizable magnetic fields after the inflation whose final amplitudes depend on the anisotropy survived d…
We provide a detailed discussion of the multifield trajectories and inflationary dynamics of the recently proposed model of Chromo-Natural inflation, which allows for slow roll inflation on a steep potential with the aid of classical non-Abelian gauge fields. We show that slow roll inflation can be achieved across a wide range of the parameter space. We demonstrate that Chromo-Natural Inflation includes trajectories that match those found in Gauge-flation and describe how the theories are related.
We argue that inflationary dynamics may support a scenario where significant matter-antimatter asymmetry is generated from initially small-scale quantum fluctuations that are subsequently stretched out over large scales. This scenario can be realised in extensions of the Standard Model with an extra gauge symmetry having mixed anomalies with the electroweak gauge symmetry. Inflationary baryogenesis in a model with gauged baryon number is considered in detail.
We study the resonant decay of the Higgs condensate into weak gauge bosons after inflation and estimate the corrections arising from the non-Abelian self-interactions of the gauge fields. We find that non-Abelian interaction terms induce an effective mass which tends to shut down the resonance. For the broad resonance relevant for the Standard Model Higgs the produced gauge particles backreact on the dynamics of the Higgs condensate before the non-Abelian terms grow large. The non-Abelian terms can however significantly affect the final stages of the resonance after the backreaction. In the na…
Models of chaotic inflation with a fractional power-law potential are not only viable but also testable in the foreseeable future. We show that such models can be realized in simple strongly coupled supersymmetric gauge theories. In these models, the energy scale during inflation is dynamically generated by the dimensional transmutation due to the strong gauge dynamics. Therefore, such models not only explain the origin of the fractional power in the inflationary potential but also provide a reason why the energy scale of inflation is much smaller than the Planck scale.
A spontaneously broken global discrete symmetry may have pseudo Goldstone modes associated with the spontaneous breaking of the approximate continuous symmetry of the low dimension terms in the Lagrangian. These provide natural candidates for an inflaton that can generate slow roll inflation. We show that, in the case of a non Abelian discrete symmetry, the pseudo Goldstone modes readily couple to further scalar fields in a manner that the end of inflation is determined by these additional scalar fields, generating hybrid inflation. We give a simple parameterisation of the inflationary potenti…
A pseudoscalar inflaton $φ$, coupled to the topological charge density $F\tilde{F}$ of a non-Abelian sector, can decay to gauge bosons ($φ\to g g $), which may thermalize rapidly. The friction felt by $φ$ is then increased by non-Abelian "strong sphalerons", leading to a self-amplifying process that can efficiently heat up the medium. We determine a lower bound for the gravitational wave production rate from such a process, originating via hydrodynamic fluctuations and particle collisions, in terms of a minimal number of parameters. Only a moderate fraction of energy density is converted to gr…
In axion gauge field inflation an axion-like particle driving cosmic inflation is coupled to the Chern-Simons density of an Abelian or non-Abelian gauge group. In the case of a non-Abelian gauge group, this can lead to the formation of a stable, homogeneous and isotropic gauge field background. We study the dynamics of the inflaton and gauge fields in terms of the two effective coupling parameters: the gauge coupling and the axion decay constant. Starting from the Bunch-Davies vacuum in the far past, we find that the non-trivial gauge field background arises only significantly after the cosmic…
We explore the novel possibility that the inflaton responsible for cosmological inflation is a gauge non-singlet in supersymmetric (SUSY) Grand Unified Theories (GUTs). For definiteness we consider SUSY hybrid inflation where we show that the scalar components of gauge non-singlet superfields, together with fields in conjugate representations, may form a D-flat direction suitable for inflation. We apply these ideas to SUSY models with an Abelian gauge group, a Pati-Salam gauge group and finally Grand Unified Theories based on SO(10) where the scalar components of the matter superfields in the …
We propose an idea that hidden particles can be separated according to gauge quantum numbers from the visible ones by the difference of boundary conditions on extra dimensions. We formulate 5-dimensional gauge theories yielding conjugate boundary conditions besides ordinary ones on $S^1/Z_2$, and examine physical implications concerning hidden particles on an extension of the standard model coexisting different types of boundary conditions. A model with conjugate boundary conditions is applied on a gauge-Higgs inflation scenario.
The shift-symmetric coupling of a pseudo-scalar particle driving inflation to gauge fields provides a unique way of probing cosmic inflation. We show for an SU(2) gauge group how a classical isotropic background gauge field develops from the standard quantum mechanical vacuum in the far past. Over the course of inflation, the theory dynamically evolves from an approximately abelian regime into an inherently non-abelian regime, with distinct predictions for the scalar and tensor power spectra. The latter regime closely resembles a setup known as chromo-natural inflation, although our main focus…
The isotropy and homogeneity of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) favors "scalar driven" early Universe inflationary models. Non-scalar fields, and in particular gauge fields, are on the other hand commonplace in all high energy particle physics models proposed to be at work at the upper bound on energy scale of inflation set by the current CMB observations. In this review we consider the role and consequences, theoretical and observational, that gauge fields can have during inflationary era. Gauge fields may be turned on in the background during inflation, or may become relevant at the le…
We consider models of inflation with U(1) gauge fields and charged scalar fields including symmetry breaking potential, chaotic inflation and hybrid inflation. We show that there exist attractor solutions where the anisotropies produced during inflation becomes comparable to the slow-roll parameters. In the models where the inflaton field is a charged scalar field the gauge field becomes highly oscillatory at the end of inflation ending inflation quickly. Furthermore, in charged hybrid inflation the onset of waterfall phase transition at the end of inflation is affected significantly by the ev…
We present a leptogenesis scenario associated with inflationary models involving non-Abelian gauge fields within the standard model of particle physics (SM). We show that this class of inflationary models generates intrinsic birefringent gravitational waves that through the gravitational chiral anomaly in SM, can naturally create a net lepton number density. The CP violating interaction is produced by tensor fluctuations of the gauge field, while the efficiency of this process is determined by the effective background value of the gauge field. We demonstrate that this mechanism can create the …
A model of inflation is presented where the inflaton field is a complex scalar field coupled to a U(1) gauge field. Due to the axial symmetry of the potential, the inflation is driven by the radial direction while the angular field is gauged by U(1). Due to the coupling of the inflaton to the gauge field, a time dependent mass term for the gauge field is generated dynamically and conformal invariance is broken. We study whether a significant amount of primordial magnetic fields can be generated during inflation by allowing a time-dependent U(1) gauge kinetic coupling.
In the context of gauge theories, observable quantities, if properly defined and computed, do not depend on the gauge-fixing procedure. In this paper, we develop a formalism that implements this (apparent) tautology in the case of inflation. As a simple application, we discuss Coleman-Weinberg "hilltop" inflation.
We point out the necessity of resolving the apparent gauge dependence in the quantum corrections of cosmological observables for Higgs-like inflation models. We highlight the fact that this gauge dependence is due to the use of an asymmetric background current which is specific to a choice of coordinate system in the scalar manifold. Favoring simplicity over complexity, we further propose a practical shortcut to gauge-independent inflationary observables by using effective potential obtained from a polar-like background current choice. We demonstrate this shortcut for several explicit examples…
Motivated by the recent detection of B-mode polarization of CMB by BICEP2 which is possibly of primordial origin, we study large field inflation models which can be obtained from higher-dimensional gauge theories. The constraints from CMB observations on the gauge theory parameters are given, and their naturalness are discussed. Among the models analyzed, Dante's Inferno model turns out to be the most preferred model in this framework.
Non-abelian discrete gauge symmetries can provide the inflaton with a flat potential even when one takes into account gravitational strength effects. The discreteness of the symmetries also provide special field values where inflation can end via a hybrid type mechanism. An interesting feature of this method is that it can naturally lead to extremely flat potentials and so, in principle, to inflation at unusually low energy scales. Two examples of effective field theories with this mechanism are given, one with a hybrid exit and one with a mutated hybrid exit. They include an explicit example …
In order to gain new insights into the gauge field couplings in the early universe, we consider the constraints on gauge field production during inflation imposed by requiring that their effect on the CMB anisotropies are subdominant. In particular, we calculate systematically the bispectrum of the primordial curvature perturbation induced by the presence of vector gauge fields during inflation. Using a model independent parametrization in terms of magnetic non-linearity parameters, we calculate for the first time the contribution to the bispectrum from the cross correlation between the inflat…
We present an inflationary scenario based on a phenomenologically viable model with direct gauge mediation of low-scale supersymmetry breaking. Inflation can occur in the supersymmetry-breaking hidden sector. Although the reheating temperature from the inflaton decay is so high that the gravitino problem seems to be severe, late time entropy production from the decay of the pseudomoduli field associated with the supersymmetry breaking can dilute gravitinos sufficiently. We show that gravitinos are also produced from the pseudomoduli decay and there is a model parameter space where gravitinos c…
We propose an extension to the recently proposed extranatural or gauge inflation scenario in which the radius modulus field around which the Wilson loop is wrapped assists inflation as it shrinks. We discuss how this might lead to more generic initial conditions for inflation.
$SU(2)$ gauge fields can generate large gravitational waves during inflation, if they are coupled to an axion which can be either the inflaton or a spectator field. The shape of the produced tensor power spectrum $\mathcal{P}_h$ depends on the form of the axion potential. We derive analytic expressions and provide general templates for $\mathcal{P}_h$ for various types of the spectator axion potential. Furthermore, we explore the detectability of the oscillatory feature, which is present in $\mathcal{P}_h$ in the case of an axion monodromy model, by possible future CMB B-mode polarization obse…
We study the scalar-tensor-tensor non-Gaussian signal in an inflationary model comprising also an axion coupled with SU(2) gauge fields. In this set-up, metric fluctuations are sourced by the gauge fields already at the linear level providing an enhanced chiral gravitational waves spectrum. The same mechanism is at work in generating an amplitude for the three-point function that is parametrically larger than in standard single-field inflation.
Chromo-natural inflation is a model where non-abelian gauge fields are sustained by the coupling of the axion with the gauge field through the Chern-Simons term. While minimal warm inflation is a model where the axion produces a thermal bath of non-abelian gauge particles through the Chern-Simons term. Since both axion inflation models are based on the same action, a natural question is if those are compatible or not. We study axion inflation with the Chern-Simons term and find that chromo-natural inflation can accommodate radiation with a temperature much larger than the Hubble parameter duri…
The refined de Sitter (dS) conjecture provides two consistency conditions for an effective theory potential of a quantum gravity theory. Any inflationary model can be checked by these conditions and minimal gauge inflation is not an exception. We develop a generic method to analyze a monotonically growing potential with an inflection point on the way to the plateau near the top such as the potential in minimal gauge inflation model and the Higgs inflation. Taking the latest observational data into account, we find the fully consistent parameter space where the model resides in the Landscape ra…
The possibility to construct an inflationary universe scenario for the finite-scale gauged Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model is investigated. This model can be described by the Higgs-Yukawa type interaction model with the corresponding compositeness scale. Therefore, the one-loop Higgs-Yukawa effective potential is used with the compositeness condition for the study of inflationary dynamics. We evaluate the fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background for the model with a finite compositeness scale in the slow-roll approximation. We find the remarkable dependence on the gauge group and the number of…
We study inflation driven by a dilaton and an axion, both of which are coupled to a SU(2) gauge field. We find that the inflation driven by the dilaton occurs in the early stage of inflation during which the gauge field grows due to the gauge kinetic function. When the energy density of magnetic fields catches up with that of electric fields, chromo-natural inflation takes over in the late stage of inflation, which we call delayed chromo-natural inflation. Thus, the delayed chromo-natural inflation driven by the axion and the gauge field is induced by the dilaton. The interesting outcome of th…
We study the production and backreaction of massive vector-like fermions in the background of a classical SU(2) gauge field during axion-driven inflation. We demonstrate all ultraviolet divergences due to the interactions with the fermions can be absorbed by renormalization of the axion wavefunction and the gauge coupling. The effects of the fermion-axion interaction vanish in the massless limit as required by symmetry. For very massive fermions, contact interactions are induced between the axion, the gauge field and the gravitational field. In this massive limit, we find the usual axion-gauge…
We present a model of inflation based on the interaction between a homogeneous and isotropic configuration of a U(1) gauge field and fermionic charge density $\mathcal{J}_{0}$. The regulated fermionic charge density is generated from a Bunch-Davies vacuum state using the methods of Koksma and Prokopec \cite{Koksma:2009tc}, and is found to redshift as $1/a(η)$. The time-like component of gauge field is sourced by the fermionic charge leading to a growth in the gauge field $A(η)_{0}\sim a(η)$. As a result inflation is dominated by the energy density contained in the gauge field and fermionic cha…
Conformal scaling invariance should play an important role for understanding the origin and evolution of universe. During inflation period, it appears to be an approximate symmetry, but how it is broken remains uncertain. The appealing $α$-attractor inflation implements the spontaneous breaking of conformal symmetry and a mysterious SO(1,1) global symmetry. To better understand the SO(1,1) symmetry, here we present a systematic treatment of the inflation models with local conformal symmetry in a more general formalism. We find SO(2) is the other possible symmetry in the presence of Weyl gauge …
Using a semiclassical approach to Gravitoelectromagnetic Inflation (GEMI), we study the origin and evolution of seminal inflaton and electromagnetic fields in the early inflationary universe from a 5D vacuum state. We use simultaneously the Lorentz and Feynman gauges. Our formalism is naturally not conformal invariant on the effective 4D de Sitter metric, which make possible the super adiabatic amplification of electric and magnetic field modes during the early inflationary epoch of the universe on cosmological scales. This is the first time that solutions for the electric field fluctuations a…
Several models of inflation employing a triplet of SU(2) vectors with spatially orthogonal vacuum expectation values (VEVs) have been recently proposed. One (tensor) combination $t$ of the vector modes is amplified in some momentum range during inflation. Due to the vector VEVs, this combination mixes with gravitational waves (GW) at the linear level, resulting in a GW amplification that has been well studied in the literature. Scalar perturbations in this class of models have been so far studied only at the linear level. We perform a first step toward the nonlinear computation using as an exa…
We present an intrinsic leptogenesis mechanism in models of axion inflation with a classical SU(2) gauge field. The gauge field is coupled to the axion with a Chern-Simons interaction and comprises a tiny fraction of the total energy, $\frac{ρ_{_{\rm YM}}}{ρ_{_{\rm tot}}}\lesssimε^2$. However, it has spin-2 fluctuations which breaks the parity and leads to the generation of chiral gravitational waves during inflation. By the gravitational anomaly in SM, it naturally creates a net lepton number density, sufficient to explain the matter asymmetry. We show that this mechanism can generate the obs…
We derive the quantum energy-momentum tensor and the corresponding quantum equation of state for gauge field theory using the effective Lagrangian approach. The energy-momentum tensor has a term proportional to the space-time metric and provides a finite non-diverging contribution to the effective cosmological term. This allows to investigate the influence of the gauge field theory vacuum polarisation on the evolution of Friedmann cosmology, inflation and primordial gravitational waves. The Type I-IV solutions of the Friedmann equations induced by the gauge field theory vacuum polarisation pro…
We study inflationary universes with an SU(3) gauge field coupled to an inflaton through a gauge kinetic function. Although the SU(3) gauge field grows at the initial stage of inflation due to the interaction with the inflaton, nonlinear self-couplings in the kinetic term of the gauge field become significant and cause nontrivial dynamics after sufficient growth. We investigate the evolution of the SU(3) gauge field numerically and reveal attractor solutions in the Bianchi type I spacetime. In general cases where all the components of the SU(3) gauge field have the same magnitude initially, th…
A gauge singlet scalar with non-minimal coupling to gravity can drive inflation and later freeze out to become cold dark matter. We explore this idea by revisiting inflation in the singlet direction (S-inflation) and Higgs Portal Dark Matter in light of the Higgs discovery, limits from LUX and observations by Planck. We show that large regions of parameter space remain viable, so that successful inflation is possible and the dark matter relic abundance can be reproduced. Moreover, the scalar singlet can stabilise the electroweak vacuum and at the same time overcome the problem of unitarity-vio…
In a general single field inflationary model we consider the effects of long wavelength scalar fluctuations on the effective expansion rate and equation of state seen by a class of free falling observers, using a physical gauge invariant formulation. In a previous work we showed that for a free massive inflaton no backreaction is observed within some constraints. In this paper we extend the validity of our previous results to the case of an arbitrary self-interacting inflation potential, working to second order in cosmological perturbation theory and to all order in slow-roll approximation. Fo…
The axionic inflaton with the Chern-Simons coupling may generate U(1) gauge fields and charged particles simultaneously. In order to incorporate the backreaction from the charged particles on the gauge fields, we develop a procedure to obtain an equilibrium solution for the gauge fields by treating the induced current as effective electric and magnetic conductivities. Introducing mean field approximation, and numerically solving self-consistency equations, we find that the gauge field amplitudes are drastically suppressed. Interestingly, as the production becomes more efficient, the charged pa…
We discuss realization of cosmic inflation in the $ν$-gauge mediated supersymmetry breaking scenario, in which a set of 24-dimensional chiral superfields responsible for the type III seesaw mechanism play the role of the messenger fields in gauge mediation. Using the data from neutrino oscillations, we show that the model satisfies constraints from the lepton flavor violation, perturbativity of the unified gauge couplings, the observed abundance of dark matter as well as the Higgs mass of 125.1 GeV. The predicted spectrum of the cosmic microwave background radiation fits well with the observat…
We study the inflation due to the D-flat direction of an extra $U(1)$. This scenario is a hybrid of a right-handed sneutrino inflaton scenario and a gauge non-singlet inflaton scenario. The inflaton is a gauge non-singlet field which induces a right-handed neutrino mass spontaneously through an extra $U(1)$ D-flat direction. This right-handed neutrino mass can explain the solar neutrino problem. The reheating temperature resulting from the decay of the coherent oscillation of the right-handed sneutrino is sufficiently high so that the baryogenesis based on the lepton number asymmetry can be ap…
Gauge theory is the foundation of the particle physics Standard Model (SM). Considering the multiple gauge sectors for one gauge transformation, we study the generalized Abelian and non-Abelian (Yang-Mills theory) gauge theories. We first point out that the U(1) gauge theory has a few unique properties, which provide the motivations for the generalized Yang-Mills theory. Also, we consider the generalized Abelian gauge theory, and study the Higgs mechanism with new interesting properties. In addition, we propose the simple and generic generalizations of Yang-Mills theory. In the simple generali…
An improved volume-weighted probability measure for eternal inflation is proposed. For the models studied in this paper it leads to simple and intuitively expected gauge-invariant results.
In this paper we study the Abelian Anti-ghost equation for the Standard Model quantized in the 't Hooft-Background gauge. We show that this equation assures the non-renormalization of the abelian ghost fields and prevents possible abelian anomalies.
We give a simplified proof for the perturbative renormalizability of theories with massive vector particles. For renormalizability it is sufficient that the vector particle is treated as an gauge field, corresponding to an Abelian gauge group. Contrary to the non-Abelian case one does not need the Higgs mechanism to create the appropriate mass terms. The proof uses ``Stueckelberg's trick'' and the Ward-Takahashi identities from local Abelian gauge invariance. The simplification is due to the fact that, again contrary to the non-Abelian case, no BRST analysis is needed.
We study the inflationary scenarios driven by a Wilson line field - the fifth component of a 5D gauge field and corresponding modulus field, within S^1/Z_2 orbifold supergravity (SUGRA). We use our off shell superfield formulation and give a detailed description of the issue of SUSY breaking by the F-component of the radion superfield. By a suitably gauged U(1)R symmetry and including couplings with compensator supermultiplets and a linear multiplet, we achieve a self consistent radion mediated SUSY breaking of no scale type. The inflaton 1-loop effective potential has attractive features need…
We study the process of primordial black hole (PBH) formation at the beginning of radiation era for the cosmological scenario in which the inflaton is a pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson (axion) and there is a coupling of the inflaton with some gauge field. In this model inflation is accompanied by the gauge quanta production and a strong rise of the curvature power spectrum amplitude at small scales (along with non-Gaussianity) is predicted. We show that data on PBH searches can be used for a derivation of essential constraints on the model parameters in such an axion inflation scenario. We compar…
We investigate a gauge theory realization of non-Abelian discrete flavor symmetries and apply the gauge enhancement mechanism in heterotic orbifold models to field-theoretical model building. Several phenomenologically interesting non-Abelian discrete symmetries are realized effectively from a $U(1)$ gauge theory with a permutation symmetry. We also construct a concrete model for the lepton sector based on a $U(1)^2 \rtimes S_3$ symmetry.
