Inflation scenario via the Standard Model Higgs boson and LHC

TL;DR

This paper examines the feasibility of the Standard Model Higgs boson as an inflaton, concluding current Higgs mass bounds exclude this possibility, but a higher Higgs mass could still produce a viable inflationary scenario.

Contribution

The paper provides a corrected analysis showing that the Standard Model Higgs cannot serve as the inflaton under current mass bounds, but explores conditions under which it could.

Findings

Current Higgs mass bounds exclude Higgs-driven inflation.

A Higgs mass of around 230 GeV could produce a viable inflationary scenario.

Predicted spectral index n_s ≈ 0.935 and tensor-to-scalar ratio r ≈ 0.0006.

Abstract

We consider a quantum corrected inflation scenario driven by a generic GUT or Standard Model type particle model whose scalar field playing the role of an inflaton has a strong non-minimal coupling to gravity. We show that currently widely accepted bounds on the Higgs mass falsify the suggestion of the paper arXiv:0710.3755 (where the role of radiative corrections was underestimated) that the Standard Model Higgs boson can serve as the inflaton. However, if the Higgs mass could be raised to $\sim 230$ GeV, then the Standard Model could generate an inflationary scenario with the spectral index of the primordial perturbation spectrum $n_s\simeq 0.935$ (barely matching present observational data) and the very low tensor-to-scalar perturbation ratio $r\simeq 0.0006$.