# A Quantum Field Theory Warm Inflation Model

## Abstract

A quantum field theory warm inflation model is presented that solves the cosmological horizon/flatness problems. An interpretation of the model is given from supersymmetry and superstring theory.

preprint: VAND-TH-98-01    
To appear in Proceedings COSMOS 98, Monterey, CA, November 1998

It has been known for a long time to us  (for a review of earlier work see ) and perhaps a longer time to Nature that inflation is a very attractive solution to the cosmological puzzles. Yet despite its simple picture, a dynamical realization of inflation has proven to be an arduous task. For a long time cosmologists adhered to the notion that a de Sitter expansion regime would necessitate a rapid depletion of radiation energy density $`\rho _r`$ thus creating a supercooled environment during inflation. Warm inflation cosmology  has clarified this misconception by demonstrating the viability of concurrent radiation production during an inflationary regime. Furthermore, the warm inflation picture has a couple of immediate conceptional advantages. Firstly the dynamics is completely free of questions about the quantum-to-classical transition. The scalar inflaton field is in a well defined classical state, thus immediately justifying the application of a classical evolution equation. Also, the fluctuations of the inflaton, which are the metric perturbations , are classical. Secondly the dynamics underlying warm inflation is based on the best understood nonequilibrium regime, the state perturbed from thermal equilibrium. In this regime, a self-consistent prescription for dynamics is well defined. These two points imply the dynamics is free of conceptual ambiguity, thus permitting a clear road towards a theory. Notwithstanding, the challenge is to find models that satisfy the requirements of this prescription.

In this talk, a quantum field theory warm inflation model is presented, based on the analysis in , that solves the horizon/flatness problems. The model obtains, from the elementary dynamics of particle physics, cosmological scale factor trajectories that begin in a radiation dominated regime, enter an inflationary regime and then smoothly exit back into a radiation dominated regime, with nonnegligible radiation throughout the evolution.

The basic idea of our implementation of warm inflation is quite simple; a scalar field, which we call the inflaton, interacts with several other fields through shifted couplings $`g^2(\phi M_i)^2\chi _i^2`$ and $`g(\phi M_i)\overline{\psi }\psi `$ to bosons and fermions repectively. The mass sites $`M_i`$ are distributed over some range. As the inflaton relaxes toward its minimum energy configuration, it will decay into all fields that are light and coupled to it. In turn this generates an effective viscosity. That this indeed happens has been demonstrated in detail in Refs. . In order to satisfy one of the requirements of a successful inflation (60 or so e-folds), overdamping must be very efficient. The purpose of distributing the masses $`M_i`$ is to increase the interval for $`\phi `$ in which light particles emerge through the shifted couplings.

The basic Lagrangian that we will consider is of a scalar field $`\varphi `$ interacting with $`N_M\times N_\chi `$ scalar fields $`\chi _{jk}`$ and $`N_M\times N_\psi `$ fermion fields $`\psi _{jk}`$,

$`[\varphi ,\chi _{jk},\overline{\psi }_{jk},\psi _{jk}]={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}(_\mu \varphi )^2{\displaystyle \frac{m^2}{2}}\varphi ^2{\displaystyle \frac{\lambda }{4!}}\varphi ^4`$ (3)   
$`+{\displaystyle \underset{j=1}{\overset{N_M}{}}}{\displaystyle \underset{k=1}{\overset{N_\chi }{}}}\left\{{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}(_\mu \chi _{jk})^2{\displaystyle \frac{f_{jk}}{4!}}\chi _{jk}^4{\displaystyle \frac{g_{jk}^2}{2}}\left(\varphi M_j\right)^2\chi _{jk}^2\right\}`$   
$`+{\displaystyle \underset{j=1}{\overset{N_M}{}}}{\displaystyle \underset{k=1}{\overset{N_\psi }{}}}\left\{i\overline{\psi }_{jk}\overline{)}\psi _{jk}h_{jk}(\varphi M_j)\overline{\psi }_{jk}\psi _{jk}\right\},`$   
where all coupling constants are positive: $`\lambda `$, $`f_{jk},g_{jk}^2,h_{jk}`$ $`>0`$. For simplicity, we consider in the following $`f_{jk}=f`$, $`g_{jk}=h_{jk}=g`$. Also, we will set $`N_\psi =N_\chi /4`$, which along with our choice of coupling implies a cancelation of radiatively generated vacuum energy corrections in the effective potential . We call this kind of model a distributed mass model (DMM), where the interaction between $`\varphi `$ with the $`\chi _{jk}`$ and $`\psi _{jk}`$ fields establishes a mass scale distribution for the $`\chi _{jk}`$ and $`\psi _{jk}`$ fields, which is determined by the mass parameters $`\{M_i\}`$. Thus the $`\chi _{jk}`$ and $`\psi _{jk}`$ effective field-dependent masses, $`m_{\chi _{jk}}(\varphi ,T,\{M\})`$ and $`m_{\psi _{jk}}(\varphi ,T,\{M\})`$, respectively, can be constrained even when $`\varphi =\phi `$ is large. The mass sites are chosen to be $`M_i=iT_M/g`$, where $`T_M`$ is a constant that is of order the temperature $`T`$ during warm inflation.

The above Lagrangian has been realized from an effective N=1 global SUSY theory with superpotential

$$W(\mathrm{\Phi },\{X_i\})=4m\mathrm{\Phi }^2+\lambda \mathrm{\Phi }^3+\underset{i=1}{\overset{N_M}{}}\left[4\mu _iX_i^2+f_iX_i^3+\lambda _i^{}\mathrm{\Phi }^2X_i+\lambda _i^{^{\prime \prime }}\mathrm{\Phi }X_i^2\right],$$
(4)   
which represents an inflaton interacting with the modes of a string. Here $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ is a single chiral superfield which represents the inflaton and $`X_i`$ $`i=1,\mathrm{},N_M`$ are a set of chiral superfields that interact with the inflaton. All the superfields will have their antichiral superfields $`\overline{\mathrm{\Phi }}`$, $`\{\overline{X}_i\}`$ appearing in kinetic and Hermetian conjugate (h.c.) terms. In the chiral representation the expansion of the superfields in terms of the Grassmann variable $`\theta `$ is $`\mathrm{\Phi }=\varphi +\theta \psi +\theta ^2F`$ and $`X_i=\chi _i+\theta \psi _i+\theta ^2F_i`$, $`i=1,\mathrm{},N_M`$. Here $`\varphi =(\varphi _1+i\varphi _2)/\sqrt{2}`$ and $`\chi _i=(\chi _1+i\chi _2)/\sqrt{2}`$ are complex scalar fields as well as $`F`$ and $`\{F_i\}`$, and $`\psi `$ and $`\{\psi _i\}`$ are Weyl spinors. By definition, the inflaton $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ characterizes the state of the vacuum energy through a nonzero amplitude in the bosonic sector $`\varphi \phi 0`$.

The DM-model is realized for the case $`\mu _i=gM_i/2`$, $`\lambda _i^{^{}}=0`$, and $`\lambda _i^{^{\prime \prime }}=2g`$, for which the masses of the $`\chi _i,\psi _i`$ fields are respectively $`m_{\chi _i}^2=g^2(\phi M_i)^22gm\phi (3g\lambda /4)\phi ^2`$ and $`m_{\psi _i}^2=g^2(\phi M_i)^2`$. At $`\phi =0`$, the masses of the $`\chi _i,\psi _i`$ pair are equal, which is required by supersymmetry. On the other hand, a nonzero inflaton field amplitude, $`\phi 0`$, implies a soft breaking of supersymmetry, which in turn permits mass differences. It has been checked that the soft breaking terms do not cause any problems for the results in .

The hierarchy of mass levels in the above model Eqs. (3) and (4) has a reminiscient similarity to the mass levels of a string. Clearly the above superpotential, thus the DM-model, captures this basic feature of strings. Also, since the DM-model can be derived from F-term SUSY, i.e. the superpotential, it is a natural model in the technical sense of renormalizability. Further details on matters related to the SUSY origin of the DM-model and its string interpretation can be found in .

The next task is to derive the effective equation of motion for $`\phi `$ that descibes dissipative dynamics. The basic idea underlying dissipative dynamics is very simple. The decay products of $`\varphi `$ and fields to which it couples create, in a sense, a viscous fluid which in turn acts to slow the motion of $`\phi `$. The 1-loop effective equation of motion for the scalar field $`\varphi `$ is obtained by setting $`\varphi =\phi +\eta `$ in Eq. (3) and imposing $`\eta =0`$. Then from Weinberg’s tadpole method the 1-loop evolution equation for $`\phi `$ (for homogeneous field) is

$`\ddot{\phi }+3H\dot{\phi }+m^2\phi +{\displaystyle \frac{\lambda }{6}}\phi ^3+{\displaystyle \frac{\lambda }{2}}\phi \eta ^2`$ (6)   
$`+g^2{\displaystyle \underset{i}{\overset{N_M}{}}}{\displaystyle \underset{j}{\overset{N_\chi }{}}}(\phi M_i)\chi _{ij}^2+g{\displaystyle \underset{i}{\overset{N_M}{}}}{\displaystyle \underset{j}{\overset{N_\chi /4}{}}}\psi _{ij}\overline{\psi }_{ij}=0.`$   
In the above, the term $`3H\dot{\phi }`$ describes the energy red-shift of $`\phi `$ due to the expansion of the Universe. This term comes naturally once we start with a background expanding metric for Eq. (3). In the warm-inflation regime of interest here, the thermalization condition must hold, which requires the characteristic time scales (given by the inverse of the decay width) for the fields in Eq. (3) to be faster than the expansion time scale, $`H\mathrm{\Gamma }`$, where $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ are decay widths given in . In this case, the calculation of the (renormalized) thermal averages in Eq. (6) can be approximated just as in the Minkowski space-time case. A systematic perturbative evaluation of the averages in the adiabatic, strong dissipative regime was presented in  and re-derived in  with extension to fermions. Based on the systematic perturbative approach, the effective equation of motion for $`\phi `$ is

$$\ddot{\phi }+V_{\mathrm{eff}}^{}(\phi ,T)+\eta (\phi )\dot{\phi }=0,$$
(7)   
where $`V_{\mathrm{eff}}^{}(\phi ,T)=V_{\mathrm{eff}}(\phi ,T)/\phi `$ is the field derivative of the 1-loop finite temperature effective potential, which can be computed by the standard methods. $`\eta (\phi )\eta ^\mathrm{B}(\phi )+\eta ^\mathrm{F}(\phi )`$ is a field dependent dissipation; their explicit expressions are given in . The above equation of motion is subject to the thermalization condition and the adiabatic condition, that the dynamic time-scale for $`\phi `$ must be much larger than the typical collision time-scale ($`\mathrm{\Gamma }^1`$), $`|\phi /\dot{\phi }|\mathrm{\Gamma }^1`$.

The model outlined above has been analyzed in the regime where $`V^{}(\phi ,T)\lambda \phi ^3/6`$ dominates. To enforce this condition, further constraints are imposed on the parameter space. There is insufficient space to present the complete solution here, but it can be found in . To summaries the results, we find observationally large e-folds $`N_e>60`$ in the regime $`g<1`$, $`N10`$, $`\phi /T10^3`$, and $`\lambda 10^9`$. In addition, a large number of mass sites $`M_i`$ are necessary $`N_M10^3`$. The total number of particle fields necessary for the dynamics in this regime, $`NN_M10^4`$, is not inconsistent with the particle content of excited states in string theory .

In summary, the model described above has two appealing features. Firstly, since the dynamics is derived from a first principles treatment of thermal field theory, which drives inflation from the natural dynamics of a scalar field, slow roll is a consequence of the dynamics and not an input. Secondly, the model offers an interesting connection to high energy unification, through its relation to superstrings. Finally an aside, it is interesting to examine whether small warm inflations, $`N_e1`$, can be implemented as reheating phases after supercooled inflation.