The Higgs field as an inflaton Fedor Bezrukov Physics Department, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269-3046, USA, RIKEN-BNL Research Center, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973-5000, USA E-mail:
[email protected] Abstract. The Higgs field of the pure Standard Model can lead to the inflationary expansion of the early Universe if it is non-minimally coupled to gravity. The model predicts Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) parameters in perfect agreement with the current observations and has implications for the Higgs boson mass. We review the model, its predictions, problems arising with its quantization and some closely related models. PACS numbers: 98.80.Cq, 14.80.Bn Submitted to: Class. Quantum Grav. Preprint: RBRC1042 1. Introduction The current results from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) completed the particle zoo of the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics by the discovery of a Higgs boson [1, 2], while at the same time showing no signs of any beyond the SM physics. The first results from the Planck satellite further confirm the inflationary scenario for the early Universe [3] and favour a simple inflationary scenario with only one slow rolling scalar field. The question remains, whether it is needed to add more particle states to the SM to make the inflation possible, or can it be explained with the already present ones? Usual considerations require for the potential of the scalar field, responsible for inflation, to be extremely flat. The initial density perturbations can be generated with the observed arXiv:1307.0708v2 [hep-ph] 8 Oct 2013 13 amplitude by a chaotic inflation with a scalar field with the quartic self-coupling λ 10− or mass m 1013 GeV [4].