Inflating and reheating the Universe with an independent affine connection
Alberto Salvio
Abstract
It is shown that a component of the dynamical affine connection, which is independent of the metric, can drive inflation in agreement with observations. This provides a geometrical origin for the inflaton. It is also found that the decays of this field, which has spin 0 and odd parity, into Higgs bosons can reheat the Universe up to a sufficiently high temperature.
Topics & Concepts
InflatonPhysicsConnection (principal bundle)Higgs bosonAffine transformationAffine connectionUniverseBosonTheoretical physicsParticle physicsInflation (cosmology)Parity (physics)Higgs fieldQuantum mechanicsGeometryMathematicsCosmology and Gravitation TheoriesDark Matter and Cosmic PhenomenaBlack Holes and Theoretical Physics