Higgs inflation

TL;DR

Higgs inflation proposes that the Standard Model Higgs boson, non-minimally coupled to gravity, could explain the early universe's inflationary period and structure formation, linking particle physics with cosmology.

Contribution

This paper reviews the minimal Higgs inflation model, its predictions, open issues, and potential extensions, highlighting its connection to Standard Model vacuum metastability.

Findings

Higgs inflation can produce the observed primordial perturbations.

The model's predictions are consistent with current cosmological data.

Open issues include vacuum stability and model extensions.

Abstract

The properties of the recently discovered Higgs boson together with the absence of new physics at collider experiments allows us to speculate about consistently extending the Standard Model of particle physics all the way up to the Planck scale. In this context, the Standard Model Higgs non-minimally coupled to gravity could be responsible for the symmetry properties of the Universe at large scales and for the generation of the primordial spectrum of curvature perturbations seeding structure formation. We overview the minimalistic Higgs inflation scenario, its predictions, open issues and extensions and discuss its interplay with the possible metastability of the Standard Model vacuum.