2006/08/31 by Rouzbeh Allahverdi, Anupam Mazumdar · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Higgs boson #Inflation (cosmology) #Inflaton #Particle physics #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #Physics #Preprint #Quantum electrodynamics #Quantum mechanics #Superposition principle #Theoretical physics #Thermalisation #Vacuum expectation value #astro-ph #gr-qc #hep-ph #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/1475-7516/2007/08/023
published as JCAP0708:023,2007 · 9 revtex pages, v3: expanded discussion on two flat directions, minor modifications, conclusions unchanged
arxiv created 2007/05/21 · openalex publication_date 2007/08/31 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We examine the fate of supersymmetric flat directions. We argue that the non-perturbative decay of the flat direction via preheating is an unlikely event. In order to address this issue, first we identify the physical degrees of freedom and their masses in the presence of a large flat direction VEV (vacuum expectation value). We explicitly show that the (complex) flat direction and its fermionic partner are the only light physical fields in the spectrum. If the flat direction VEV is much larger than the weak scale, and it has a rotational motion, there will be no resonant particle production at all. The case of multiple flat directions is more involved. We illustrate that in many cases of physical interest, the situation becomes effectively the same as that of a single flat direction, or collection of independent single directions. In such cases preheating is not relevant. In the absence of a fast non-perturbative decay, the flat direction survives long enough to affect thermalization in supersymmetric models as described in Allahverdi and Mazumdar (2005 Preprint hep-ph/0505050 and 2006 J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. JCAP10(2006)008). It can also 'terminate' an early stage of non-perturbative inflaton decay as discussed in Allahverdi and Mazumdar (2006 Preprint hep-ph/0603244).