Refining the multi-field effects of Higgs inflation

• Main Author: Greenwood, Ross Norman
• Other Authors: David I. Kaiser.
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2013
• Subjects: Physics.
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/78542

Thesis (S.B.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Physics, 2012. === Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. === Includes bibliographical references (p. 37). === 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. === by Ross Norman Greenwood. === S.B.