Radiative Plateau Inflation with Conformal Invariance: Dynamical Generation of Electroweak and Seesaw Scales

TL;DR

This paper explores a scale-invariant $B-L$ model where a dark scalar drives inflation and dynamically generates electroweak and Seesaw scales through radiative corrections, linking inflationary parameters with collider constraints.

Contribution

It introduces a novel scale-invariant $B-L$ framework with threshold corrections, connecting inflationary dynamics to electroweak and Seesaw scale generation, constrained by current collider data.

Findings

Identifies parameter space consistent with LHC bounds and inflationary requirements.

Predicts inflation scales ranging from $10^7$ to $10^{12}$ GeV for different parameters.

Estimates reheating temperatures compatible with BBN constraints.

Abstract

We investigate a scale-invariant $B-L$ scenario where the Standard Model (SM) is supplemented with a dark scalar $\phi$ which has gauge \& Yukawa interactions, with the couplings $g_{BL}$ and $y$, respectively, leading to radiative plateau inflation at scale $\phi=M$ in the ultraviolet (UV), while dynamically generating the Electroweak and Seesaw scales \textit{\'a l\'a} Coleman-Weinberg in the infrared (IR). This is particularly achieved by implementing threshold corrections at an energy scale $\mu_T$ arising due to the presence of vector-like fermions. We show that implementing the inflationary observables makes the couplings solely dependent on the plateau scale $M$, leaving us with only two independent parameters $M$ and $\mu_T$. Within the theoretically consistent parameter space defined by $m_{Z_{BL}} > 850~\rm GeV$, from the assumption of independent evolution of the dark sector couplings from the SM couplings and $M < 5.67~M_P$ required for the realisation of inflationary \textit{plateau-like} behaviour of the potential around $\phi=M$, where $M_P=2.4\times10^{18}$ GeV is the reduced Planck mass, we identify the parameter space that is excluded by the current LHC results from the search for the heavy $Z_{BL}$ boson. For typical benchmark points in the viable parameter regions, we estimate the reheating temperature to be $\mathcal{O}(TeV)$ thus consistent with the standard Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) constraints. For typical benchmark points ($M=5.67,~1,~0.1~M_P$) we predict the scales of inflation to be $\mathcal{H}_{inf}=2.79\times10^{12}$ GeV, $1.53\times10^{10}$ GeV and $1.53\times10^7$ GeV, respectively.