Searcharxiv⌕ Search

arXiv subjects

Rouzbeh Allahverdi

Publications and source records attributed to Rouzbeh Allahverdi.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

Leptogenesis from a sneutrino condensate revisited

We re--examine leptogenesis from a right--handed sneutrino condensate, paying special attention to the $B-$term associated with the see--saw Majorana mass. This term generates a lepton asymmetry in the condensate whose time average vanishes. However, a net asymmetry will result if the sneutrino lifetime is not much longer than the period of oscillations. Supersymmetry breaking by thermal effects then yields a lepton asymmetry in the standard model sector after the condensate decays. We explore different possibilities by taking account of both the low--energy and Hubble $B-$terms. It will be shown that the desired baryon asymmetry of the Universe can be obtained for a wide range of Majorana mass.

hep-ph↗

Sleptogenesis

We propose that the observed baryon asymmetry of the Universe can naturally arise from a net asymmetry generated in the sleptonic sector at fairly low reheat temperatures. The best candidate is indeed the right-handed sneutrino. The initial asymmetry in the sneutrino sector can be produced from the decay of the inflaton, and is subsequently transferred into the Standard Model (s)lepton doublet via the decay of the sneutrino. The active sphalerons then reprocess the leptonic asymmetry into the baryonic asymmetry. The marked feature of this scenario is that the lepton asymmetry is decoupled from the neutrino Yukawa sector. We exhibit that our scenario can be embedded within models which seek the origin of a tiny mass for neutrinos.

hep-ph↗

Cosmological bounds on large extra dimensions from non-thermal production of Kaluza-Klein modes

The existing cosmological constraints on theories with large extra dimensions rely on the thermal production of the Kaluza-Klein modes of gravitons and radions in the early Universe. Successful inflation and reheating, as well as baryogenesis, typically requires the existence of a TeV-scale field in the bulk, most notably the inflaton. The non-thermal production of KK modes with masses of order 100 GeV accompanying the inflaton decay sets the lower bounds on the fundamental scale M_*. For a 1 TeV inflaton, the late decay of these modes distort the successful predictions of Big Bang Nucleosynthesis unless M_*> 35, 13, 7, 5 and 3 TeV for 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 extra dimensions, respectively. This improves the existing bounds from cosmology on M_* for 4, 5 and 6 extra dimensions. Even more stringent bounds are derived for a heavier inflaton.

hep-ph↗

Non-thermal leptogenesis with almost degenerate superheavy neutrinos

We present a model with minimal assumptions for non-thermal leptogenesis with almost degenerate superheavy right-handed neutrinos in a supersymmetric set up. In this scenario a gauge singlet inflaton is directly coupled to the right-handed (s)neutrinos with a mass heavier than the inflaton mass. This helps avoiding potential problems which can naturally arise otherwise. The inflaton decay to the Standard Model leptons and Higgs, via off-shell right-handed (s)neutrinos, reheats the Universe. The same channel is also responsible for generating the lepton asymmetry, thus requiring no stage of preheating in order to excite superheavy (s)neutrinos. The suppressed decay rate of the inflaton naturally leads to a sufficiently low reheat temperature, which in addition, prevents any wash out of the yielded asymmetry. We will particularly elaborate on important differences from leptogenesis with on-shell (s)neutrinos. It is shown that for nearly degenerate neutrinos a successful leptogenesis can be accommodated for a variety of inflationary models with a rather wide ranging inflationary scale.

hep-ph↗

Heavy particle production during reheating

We discuss production of heavy partciles during reheating. We find that the very energetic inflaton decay products can contribute to the production of massive stable particles, either through collisions with the thermal plasma, or through collisions with each other. If such reactions exist, the same massive particles can also be produced directly in inflaton decay, once higher--order processes are included. We show that these new, non--thermal production mechanisms often significantly strengthen constraints on the parameters of models containing massive stable particles.

hep-ph↗

Thermalization after inflation and production of massive stable particles

We discuss thermalization through perturbative inflaton decay at the end of inflation. We find that a thermal plasma should form well before all inflatons have decayed, unless all gauge symmetries are badly broken during that epoch. However, before they thermalize, the very energetic inflaton decay products can contribute to the production of massive stable particles, either through collisions with the thermal plasma, or through collisions with each other. If such reactions exist, the same massive particles can also be produced directly in inflaton decay, once higher--order processes are included. We show that these new, non--thermal production mechanisms often significantly strengthen constraints on the parameters of models containing massive stable particles; for example, stable charged particles with mass below the inflaton mass seem to be essentially excluded.

hep-ph↗

Production of massive stable particles in inflaton decay

We point out that inflaton decays can be a copious source of stable or long--lived particles $χ$ with mass exceeding the reheat temperature $T_R$. Once higher order processes are included, this statement is true for any $χ$ particle with renormalizable (gauge or Yukawa) interactions. This contribution to the $χ$ density often exceeds the contribution from thermal $χ$ production, leading to significantly stronger constraints on model parameters than those resulting from thermal $χ$ production alone. For example, we all but exclude models containing stable charged particles with mass less than half the mass of the inflaton.

hep-ph↗

Q-ball formation in the wake of Hubble-induced radiative corrections

We discuss some interesting aspects of the $\rm Q$-ball formation during the early oscillations of the flat directions. These oscillations are triggered by the running of soft $({\rm mass})^2$ stemming from the nonzero energy density of the Universe. However, this is quite different from the standard $\rm Q$-ball formation. The running in presence of gauge and Yukawa couplings becomes strong if $m_{1/2}/m_0$ is sufficiently large. Moreover, the $\rm Q$-balls which are formed during the early oscillations constantly evolve, due to the redshift of the Hubble-induced soft mass, until the low-energy supersymmtery breaking becomes dominant. For smaller $m_{1/2}/m_0$, $\rm Q$-balls are not formed during early oscillations because of the shrinking of the instability band due to the Hubble expansion. In this case the $\rm Q$-balls are formed only at the weak scale, but typically carry smaller charges, as a result of their amplitude redshift. Therefore, the Hubble-induced corrections to the flat directions give rise to a successful $\rm Q$-ball cosmology.

hep-ph↗

Baryogenesis in models with large extra dimensions

We describe how difficult it is to realise baryogenesis in models where the fundamental scale in nature is as low as TeV. The problem becomes even more challenging if we assume that there are only {\it two} extra compact spatial dimensions, because thermal history of such a Universe is strongly constrained by various cosmological and astrophysical bounds which translate the maximal temperature of the Universe which must not exceed $\sim {\cal O}(10)$MeV. This simply reiterates that the observed baryon asymmetry must be synthesised just above the nucleosynthesis scale. In this talk we address how to construct a simple model which can overcome this challenge.

hep-ph↗

Possible astrophysical signatures of heavy stable neutral relics in supergravity models

We consider heavy stable neutral particles in the context of supergravity and show that a gravitationally suppressed inflaton decay can produce such particles in cosmologically interesting abundances within a wide mass range $10^3 {\rm GeV} \leq m_X \leq 10^{11} {\rm GeV}$. In gravity-mediated supersymmetry breaking models, a heavy particle can decay into its superpartner and a photon-photino pair or a gravitino. Such decays only change the identity of a possible dark matter candidate. However, for $10^3 {\rm GeV} \leq m_X \leq 10^7 {\rm GeV}$, astrophysical bounds from gamma-ray background and photodissociation of light elements can be more stringent than the overclosure bound, thus ruling out the particle as a dark matter candidate.

hep-ph↗

Hubble-induced radiative corrections and Affleck-Dine Baryogenesis

We examine the viability of the Affleck-Dine mechanism for baryogenesis under radiatively induced running of soft breaking $({\rm mass})^2$ of the flat directions stemming from non-zero energy density of the inflaton during inflation. A major difference from analogous phenomenological studies is that the horizon radius provides a natural infrared cut-off to the quantum corrections in this case. We identify different scenarios which may arise and point out that the $H_{u}L$ flat direction remains the most promising flat direction, since it is largely independent of uncertainties about high scale physics and details of the inflationary model.

hep-ph↗

Baryogenesis in theories with large extra spatial dimensions

We describe a simple and predictive scenario for baryogenesis in theories with large extra dimensions which resembles Affleck-Dine baryogenesis. The Affleck-Dine field is a complex scalar field carrying a $U(1)_χ$ charge which is dynamically broken after the end of inflation. This generates an excess of $χ$ over $\bar χ$, which then decays into Standard Model fermions to produce an excess of baryons over anti-baryons. Our model is very constrained because the Affleck-Dine field has to be sufficiently flat during inflation. It is also a source for density fluctuations which can be tested in the coming satellite and balloon experiments.

hep-ph↗

Final reheating temperature on a single brane

We make a generic remark on thermal history of a single brane cosmology in models with an infinitely large single extra dimension. We point out that the reheat temperature of the Universe is bounded by an excess production of gravitons from the thermal bath. The actual bound is given by the brane tension. If the initial temperature of the Universe is larger than this bound, then an efficient graviton production shall prevail. However, the brane cools down gradually as the Kaluza-Klein gravitons take the energy in excess away from the brane. The cooling continues until the radiation dominated phase is restored, which occurs before the Big Bang Nucleosynthesis. We argue whatsoever be the early evolution of the Universe, the final radiation dominated phase always starts after the Universe transits from non-conventional era to the standard cosmological era.

hep-ph↗

Is nonperturbative inflatino production during preheating a real threat to cosmology?

We discuss toy models where supersymmetry is broken due to non-vanishing time-varying vacuum expectation value of the inflaton field during preheating. We discuss the production of inflatino the superpartner of inflaton due to vacuum fluctuations and then we argue that they do not survive until nucleosynthesis and decay along with the inflaton to produce a thermal bath after preheating. Thus the only relevant remnant is the helicity \pm 3/2 gravitinos which can genuinely cause problem to nucleosynthesis.

hep-ph↗

Thermalization After Inflation and Reheating Temperature

We present a detailed examination of thermalization after inflation for perturbative inflaton decay. Different interactions among particles in the plasma of inflaton decay products are considered and it will be shown that 2 -> 2 scatterings and particle decay are the important ones. We show that thermalization occurs after decays dominate scatterings, and that depending on the typical mass scale of inflaton decay products, different situations may arise. In particular, thermalization may be delayed until late times, in which case the bounds from thermal gravitino production on supersymmetric models of inflation are considerably relaxed. We will also consider the case where the observable sector consists only of the MSSM matter content, and point out that flat directions with large vevs may result in earlier thermalization of the plasma and push the reheat temperature towards its upper limit.

hep-ph↗

Reheating and Supersymmetric Flat-Direction Baryogenesis

We re-examine Affleck-Dine baryo/leptogenesis from the oscillation of condensates along flat directions of the supersymmetric standard model, which attained large vevs at the end of inflationary epoque. The key observation is that superpotential interactions couple the flat directions to other fields, which acquire masses induced by the flat-direction vev that may be sufficiently small for them to be kinematically accessible to inflaton decay. The resulting plasma of inflaton decay products then may act on the flat directions via these superpotential Yukawa couplings, inducing thermal masses and supersymmetry-breaking A terms. In such cases the flat directions start their oscillations at an earlier time than usually estimated. The oscillations are also terminated earlier, due to evaporation of the flat direction condensate produced by its interaction with the plasma of inflaton decay products. In these cases we find that estimates for the resulting baryon/lepton asymmetry of the universe are substantially altered. We identify scenarios for the Yukawa couplings to the flat directions, and the order and mass scale of higher-dimensional superpotential interactions that set the initial flat direction vev, that might lead to acceptable baryo/leptogenesis.

hep-ph↗

Parametric Resonance For Complex Fields

Recently, there have been studies of parametric resonance decay of oscillating real homogeneous cosmological scalar fields, in both the narrow-band and broad-band case, primarily within the context of inflaton decay and (p)reheating. However, many realistic models of particle cosmology, such as supersymmetric ones, inherently involve complex scalar fields. In the oscillations of complex scalars, a relative phase between the oscillations in the real and imaginary components may prevent the violations of adiabaticity that have been argued to underly broad-band parametric resonance. In this paper, we give a treatment of parametric resonance for the decay of homogeneous complex scalar fields, analyzing properties of the resonance in the presence of out of phase oscillations of the real and imaginary components. For phase-invariant coupling of the driving parameter field to the decay field, and Mathieu type resonance, we give an explicit mapping from the complex resonance case to an equivalent real case with shifted resonance parameters. In addition, we consider the consequences of the complex field case as they apply to ``instant preheating,'' the explosive decay of non-convex potentials, and resonance in an expanding FRW universe. Applications of our considerations to supersymmetric cosmological models will be presented elsewhere.

hep-ph↗