We present a minimal extension of the Standard Model (SM) providing a consistent picture of particle physics from the electroweak scale to the Planck scale and of cosmology from inflation until today. Three right-handed neutrinos N i , a new color triplet Q and a complex SM-singlet scalar σ, whose vacuum expectation value v σ ∼ 10 11 GeV breaks lepton number and a Peccei-Quinn symmetry simultaneously, are added to the SM. At low energies, the model reduces to the SM, augmented by seesaw generated neutrino masses and mixing, plus the axion. The latter solves the strong CP problem and accounts for the cold dark matter in the Universe. The inflaton is comprised by a mixture of σ and the SM Higgs, and reheating of the Universe after inflation proceeds via the Higgs portal. Baryogenesis occurs via thermal leptogenesis. Thus, five fundamental problems of particle physics and cosmology are solved at one stroke in this unified Standard Model -Axion -seesawHiggs portal inflation (SMASH) model. It can be probed decisively by upcoming cosmic microwave background and axion dark matter experiments.

(2017) 'Unifying ination with the axion, dark matter, baryogenesis, and the seesaw mechanism.', Physical review letters., 118 (7). 071802.Further information on publisher's website:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.118.071802Publisher's copyright statement:Reprinted with permission from the American Physical Society: Ballesteros, Guillermo, Redondo, Javier, Ringwald, Andreas Tamarit, Carlos (2017). Unifying Ination with the Axion, Dark Matter, Baryogenesis, and the Seesaw Mechanism. Physical Review Letters 118(7): 071802 c (2017) by the American Physical Society. Readers may view, browse, and/or download material for temporary copying purposes only, provided these uses are for noncommercial personal purposes. Except as provided by law, this material may not be further reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modied, adapted, performed, displayed, published, or sold in whole or part, without prior written permission from the American Physical Society.Additional information: Use policyThe full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. A minimal extension of the standard model (SM) with a single new mass scale and providing a complete and consistent picture of particle physics and cosmology up to the Planck scale is presented. We add to the SM three right-handed SM-singlet neutrinos, a new vectorlike color triplet fermion, and a complex SMsinglet scalar σ that stabilizes the Higgs potential and whose vacuum expectation value at ∼1011 GeV breaks lepton number and a Peccei-Quinn symmetry simultaneously. Primordial inflation is produced by a combination of σ (nonminimally coupled to the scalar curvature) and the SM Higgs boson. Baryogenesis proceeds via thermal leptogenesis. At low energies, the model reduces to the SM, augmented by seesawgenerated neutrino masses, plus the axion, which solves the strong CP problem and accounts for the dark matter in the Universe. The model predicts a minimum value of the tensor-to-scalar ratio r ≃ 0.004, running of the scalar spectral index α ≃ −7 × 10 −4 , the axion mass m A ∼ 100 μeV, and cosmic axion background radiation corresponding to an increase of the effective number of relativistic neutrinos of ∼0.03. It can be probed decisively by the next generation of cosmic microwave background and axion dark matter experiments.

We investigate scenarios in which electroweak baryogenesis can occur during an exotic stage of electroweak symmetry breaking in the early Universe. This transition is driven by the expectation value of a new electroweak scalar instead of the standard Higgs field. A later, second transition then takes the system to the usual electroweak minimum, dominated by the Higgs, while preserving the baryon asymmetry created in the first transition. We discuss the general requirements for such a two-stage electroweak transition to be suitable for electroweak baryogenesis and present a toy model that illustrates the necessary ingredients. We then apply these results to construct an explicit realization of this scenario within the inert two Higgs doublet model. Despite decoupling the Higgs from the symmetry-breaking transition required for electroweak baryogenesis, we find that this picture generically predicts new light states that are accessible experimentally.

There is a guaranteed background of stochastic gravitational waves produced in the thermal plasma in the early universe. Its energy density per logarithmic frequency interval scales with the maximum temperature Tmax which the primordial plasma attained at the beginning of the standard hot big bang era. It peaks in the microwave range, at around 80 GHz [106.75/g*s(Tmax)]1/3, where g*s(Tmax) is the effective number of entropy degrees of freedom in the primordial plasma at Tmax. We present a state-of-the-art prediction of this Cosmic Gravitational Microwave Background (CGMB) for general models, and carry out calculations for the case of the Standard Model (SM) as well as for several of its extensions. On the side of minimal extensions we consider the Neutrino Minimal SM (νMSM) and the SM-Axion-Seesaw-Higgs portal inflation model (SMASH), which provide a complete and consistent cosmological history including inflation. As an example of a non-minimal extension of the SM we consider the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM). Furthermore, we discuss the current upper limits and the prospects to detect the CGMB in laboratory experiments and thus measure the maximum temperature and the effective number of degrees of freedom at the beginning of the hot big bang.

In first-order cosmological phase transitions, the asymptotic velocity of expanding bubbles is of crucial relevance for predicting observables like the spectrum of stochastic gravitational waves, or for establishing the viability of mechanisms explaining fundamental properties of the universe such as the observed baryon asymmetry. In these dynamic phase transitions, it is generally accepted that subluminal bubble expansion requires out-of-equilibrium interactions with the plasma which are captured by friction terms in the equations of motion for the scalar field. This has been disputed in works pointing out subluminal velocities in local equilibrium arising either from hydrodynamic effects in deflagrations or from the entropy change across the bubble wall in general situations. We argue that both effects are related and can be understood from the conservation of the entropy of the degrees of freedom in local equilibrium, leading to subluminal speeds for both deflagrations and detonations. The friction effect arises from the background field dependence of the entropy density in the plasma, and can be accounted for by simply imposing local conservation of stress-energy and including field dependent thermal contributions to the effective potential. We illustrate this with explicit calculations of dynamic and static bubbles for a first-order electroweak transition in a Standard Model extension with additional scalar fields.