2003/07/13 by R. P. Woodard, Woodard, R. P.
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph) #High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th) #astro-ph #hep-ph #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/0307269
12 pages, LaTeX 2epsilon, 2 figures, Proceedings of XII International Conference on Selected Problems of Modern Physics, Dubna, June 8-11, 2003
arxiv created 2003/07/13 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01
I report on work done with Tomislav Prokopec (Heidelberg, CERN). We computed the one loop self-energy of a massless fermion during inflation. When the fermion is free it experiences only a small amount of inflationary particle production owing to the conformal invariance of its classical action. However, when the fermion is Yukawa coupled to a massless, minimally coupled scalar, there is copious production of fermions. In a more complicated model this effect might generate baryon asymmetry during inflation.