Refining the multi-field effects of Higgs inflation
Name
836810000-MIT.pdf
Description
Full printable version
Size
3 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
a12ed4fdd1fc0f26ef4e6ecf9346e868
Author(s)
Greenwood, Ross Norman
Advisor(s)
David I. Kaiser.
Date Issued
2012
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
In this thesis, I investigated the extent to which the inclusion of multiple scalar fields in models of Higgs inflation produces observable departures from the single field case. I designed simulations to numerically solve the differential equations of motion in the Einstein frame governing the evolution of two nonminimally coupled fields in a quartic potential. Determining the behavior of the Hubble parameter, I found that successful inflation results in this model from a range of initial conditions. Based on calculations of the evolution of field perturbations by Courtney Peterson and Max Tegmark [6], the results suggest that the turn rate of the fields' combined velocity through field space has been sufficiently small since Hubble crossing that it may be excluded as a source of the amplification of perturbations in the Cosmic Microwave Background to their present size.
Description
Thesis (S.B.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Physics, 2012.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 37).
Subjects
Physics.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
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