Symmetry breaking after hybrid inflation

by Marga Garcia-Perez (CERN)

Thursday 1 Aug 2002, 14:00 → 15:00 Europe/Zurich

TH Auditorium (CERN)

We discuss the onset of symmetry breaking from the false vacuum in generic scenarios in which the mass squared of the Higgs depends linearly with time, as in models of hybrid inflation. We study the transition from quantum to classical fluctuations of this field, and thus justify the subsequent use of real-time lattice simulations to describe the fully non-perturbative and non-linear process of symmetry breaking. Analytic and numerical results concerning the structure of the inflaton and Higgs field at and after symmetry breaking will also be presented.