Higgs field in cosmology

TL;DR

Higgs inflation links the Standard Model Higgs boson to early universe inflation, exploring its theoretical foundations, quantum effects, and cosmological implications, thus bridging particle physics and cosmology.

Contribution

This paper reviews and discusses the phenomenological and fundamental aspects of Higgs inflation, emphasizing quantum corrections, initial conditions, and field parametrization equivalences.

Findings

Higgs inflation can successfully drive early universe expansion.

Quantum corrections influence the inflationary dynamics.

Different field parametrizations are classically and quantum mechanically equivalent.

Abstract

The accelerated expansion of the early universe is an integral part of modern cosmology and dynamically realized by the mechanism of inflation. The simplest theoretical description of the inflationary paradigm is based on the assumption of an additional propagating scalar degree of freedom which drives inflation - the inflaton. In most models of inflation the fundamental nature of the inflaton remains unexplained. In the model of Higgs inflation, the inflaton is identified with the Standard Model Higgs boson and connects cosmology with elementary particle physics. A characteristic feature of this model is a non-minimal coupling of the Higgs boson to gravity. I review and discuss several phenomenological and fundamental aspects of this model, including the impact of quantum corrections and the renormalization group, the derivation of initial conditions for Higgs inflation in a quantum cosmological framework and the classical and quantum equivalence of different field parametrizations.