The discussion centers on the potential of the Higgs boson, specifically the 126 GeV Higgs, as the inflaton and its implications for cosmic inflation. Participants explore whether the 750 GeV diphoton could also serve as the inflaton, questioning the properties and characteristics of the inflaton. The Higgs inflation model, proposed by Bezrukov and Shaposhnikov, is highlighted, emphasizing that the Higgs potential becomes small and flat at around 1017 GeV, with a nonminimal coupling ξ potentially less than 10. The tensor-to-scalar ratio r is noted to be approximately 0.2, aligning with observations from BICEP2.
PREREQUISITESThe discussion is beneficial for theoretical physicists, cosmologists, and researchers interested in the intersection of particle physics and cosmology, particularly those focused on inflationary models and the properties of the Higgs boson.
Where is the model that would get all the measured couplings right?kodama said:could the higgs boson be the inflaton 126gev
I don't see how you would get that right with the much higher scale of inflation. On the other hand, I didn't check all the ~200 arxiv submissions that appeared so far.kodama said:if not could the possible 750gev diphoton be the inflaton?
See the various theory papers for predictions.kodama said:what are the properties of the inflaton?
Is that question based on anything?kodama said:could inflaton be scalar dark matter?
kodama said:could the higgs boson be the inflaton 126gev?
The observed value of the Higgs boson mass indicates that the Higgs potential becomes small and flat at the scale around 1017GeV. Having this fact in mind, we reconsider the Higgs inflation scenario proposed by Bezrukov and Shaposhnikov. It turns out that the nonminimal coupling ξ of the Higgs squared to the Ricci scalar can be smaller than 10. For example, ξ=7 corresponds to the tensor-to-scalar ratio r≃0.2, which is consistent with the recent observation by BICEP2.