Within the last decade, we have been able to observe our universe with incredibly high precision. Nevertheless, there are theoretical problems that still do not have an answer. In this thesis, we have studied the issue of the initial conditions of inflation, and we proposed a model for which they arise naturally as an attractor. It is achieved by considering the interaction of the inflaton with a thermal bath of particles, which are in equilibrium with the horizon temperature. If inflation happens at high energies, the electroweak vacuum is unstable. Therefore, we studied how fermions help make the Standard Model more stable, by calculating their gravitational creation during inflation.
| Date of Award | 1 Jul 2020 |
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| Original language | English |
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| Awarding Institution | |
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| Supervisor | Malcolm Fairbairn (Supervisor) |
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Gravitational particle creation in the early universe
Rodriguez Roman, D. (Author). 1 Jul 2020
Student thesis: Doctoral Thesis › Doctor of Philosophy