Higgs Field, Big Bang & Negative Pressure: Questions Explained

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The Big Bang is seen by Alan Guth as having been produced by a relatively short burst of negative pressure, as a result of a high energy state that is temporarily trapped on some sort of non-zero plateau in the vacuum. I have a quote here from a popular science book by Green to clarify things:

"The Higgs field will stay on the plateau, in the high-energy, negative-pressure state, only for the briefest of instants, and while it is on the plateau, the repulsive outward push it generates is enormous."

I have two basic questions:

1) how does this "plateau" of potential energy emerge in the vacuum, enabling energy to be temporarily trapped at a non-zero value?
2) why is it that this trapped energy necessarily possesses negative pressure?

Kind regards.
 
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