TY - JOUR

T1 - Spontaneous discrete symmetry breaking during inflation and the NMSSM domain wall problem

AU - McDonald, John

PY - 1998/10/12

Y1 - 1998/10/12

N2 - The Next to Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (NMSSM), proposed as a solution of the mu problem of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model, has a discrete Z(3) symmetry which is spontaneously broken at the electroweak phase transition, resulting in a cosmological domain wall problem. In most cases this domain wall problem cannot be solved by explicit Z(3) breaking without introducing supergravity tadpole corrections which destabilize the weak scale hierarchy. Here we consider the possibility of solving the domain wall problem of the NMSSM via spontaneous discrete symmetry breaking occurring during inflation. For the case where the discrete symmetry breaking field has renormalizable couplings to the NMSSM fields, we find that the couplings must be less than 10(-5) if the reheating temperature is larger than 10(7) GeV, but can be up to 10(-3) for reheating temperatures of the order of the electroweak phase transition temperature, For the case of non-renormalizable couplings, we present a model which can solve the domain wall problem for large reheating temperatures without requiring any very small coupling constants. In this model the domain walls are eliminated by a pressure coming from their interaction with a coherently oscillating scalar field whose phase is fixed during inflation. This oscillating scalar field typically decays after the electroweak phase transition but before nucleosynthesis, leaving no additional Z(3) symmetry breaking in the zero-temperature theory. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.

AB - The Next to Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (NMSSM), proposed as a solution of the mu problem of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model, has a discrete Z(3) symmetry which is spontaneously broken at the electroweak phase transition, resulting in a cosmological domain wall problem. In most cases this domain wall problem cannot be solved by explicit Z(3) breaking without introducing supergravity tadpole corrections which destabilize the weak scale hierarchy. Here we consider the possibility of solving the domain wall problem of the NMSSM via spontaneous discrete symmetry breaking occurring during inflation. For the case where the discrete symmetry breaking field has renormalizable couplings to the NMSSM fields, we find that the couplings must be less than 10(-5) if the reheating temperature is larger than 10(7) GeV, but can be up to 10(-3) for reheating temperatures of the order of the electroweak phase transition temperature, For the case of non-renormalizable couplings, we present a model which can solve the domain wall problem for large reheating temperatures without requiring any very small coupling constants. In this model the domain walls are eliminated by a pressure coming from their interaction with a coherently oscillating scalar field whose phase is fixed during inflation. This oscillating scalar field typically decays after the electroweak phase transition but before nucleosynthesis, leaving no additional Z(3) symmetry breaking in the zero-temperature theory. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.

KW - supersymmetry

KW - cosmology

KW - domain walls

KW - SUPERSYMMETRIC STANDARD MODEL

KW - DESTABILIZING DIVERGENCES

KW - SUPERGRAVITY THEORIES

KW - BARYOGENESIS

KW - TRANSITION

KW - GRAVITINO

KW - SINGLET

KW - STRINGS

KW - SCALE

KW - SAVE

U2 - 10.1016/S0550-3213(98)00414-3

DO - 10.1016/S0550-3213(98)00414-3

M3 - Journal article

VL - 530

SP - 325

EP - 345

JO - Nuclear Physics B

JF - Nuclear Physics B

SN - 0550-3213

IS - 1-2

ER -