Baryogenesis from the amplification of vacuum fluctuations during inflation

TL;DR

This paper proposes a novel mechanism for baryogenesis during inflation, where quantum fluctuations of a complex scalar field are amplified, leading to the observed matter-antimatter asymmetry in the universe.

Contribution

It introduces a new inflationary baryogenesis model involving amplified quantum fluctuations with CP-violation from complex mass and kinetic terms, matching observed asymmetry at high inflation scales.

Findings

Asymmetry consistent with observations for inflation scale ~10^16 GeV

Amplification of quantum fluctuations can generate baryon asymmetry

Lower inflation scales possible with more e-folds

Abstract

We propose that the baryon asymmetry of the Universe may originate from the amplification of quantum fluctuations of a light complex scalar field during inflation. CP-violation is sourced by complex mass terms, which are smaller than the Hubble rate, as well as non-standard kinetic terms. We find that, when assuming 60 e-folds of inflation, an asymmetry in accordance with observation can result for models where the energy scale of inflation is of the order of 10^16 GeV. Lower scales may be achieved when assuming substantially larger amounts of e-folds.