Induced-Gravity GUT-Scale Higgs Inflation in Supergravity

TL;DR

This paper develops supergravity models of induced-gravity Higgs inflation with a U(1)B-L symmetry breaking at the GUT scale, predicting inflationary solutions similar to Starobinsky's model and exploring implications for particle physics and cosmology.

Contribution

It introduces a supergravity framework for Higgs inflation with a renormalizable superpotential and non-minimal couplings, linking inflation to GUT-scale physics and leptogenesis.

Findings

Inflationary solutions of Starobinsky type are found.

The inflaton mass is predicted to be around 10^13 GeV.

The model can generate the MSSM mu parameter and support non-thermal leptogenesis.

Abstract

Models of induced-gravity inflation are formulated within Supergravity employing as inflaton the Higgs field which leads to a spontaneous breaking of a U(1)B-L symmetry at Mgut=2x10^16 GeV. We use a renormalizable superpotential, fixed by a U(1) R symmetry, and Kahler potentials which exhibit a quadratic non-minimal coupling to gravity with or without an independent kinetic mixing in the inflaton sector. In both cases we find inflationary solutions of Starobinsky type whereas in the latter case, others (more marginal) which resemble those of linear inflation arise too. In all cases the inflaton mass is predicted to be of the order of 10^13~GeV. Extending the superpotential of the model with suitable terms, we show how the MSSM mu parameter can be generated. Also, non-thermal leptogenesis can be successfully realized, provided that the gravitino is heavier than about 10 TeV.