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Civiletti, M., Pallis, C., & Shafi, Q. (2014). Upper bound on the tensor-to-scalar ratio in GUT-scale supersymmetric hybrid inflation. Phys. Lett. B, 733, 276–282.
Abstract: We explore the upper bound on the tensor-to-scalar ratio r in supersymmetric (F-term) hybrid inflation models with the gauge symmetry breaking scale set equal to the value 2.86 . 10(16) GeV, as dictated by the unification of the MSSM gauge couplings. We employ a unique renormalizable superpotential and a quasi-canonical Kahler potential, and the scalar spectral index n(s) is required to lie within the two-sigma interval from the central value found by the Planck satellite. In a sizable region of the parameter space the potential along the inflationary trajectory is a monotonically increasing function of the inflaton, and for this case, r less than or similar to 2.9.10(-4), while the spectral index running, vertical bar dn(s)/d ln k vertical bar, can be as large as 0.01. Ignoring higher order terms which ensure the boundedness of the potential for large values of the inflaton, the upper bound on r is significantly larger, of order 0.01, for subplanckian values of the inflaton, and vertical bar dn(s)/dlnk vertical bar similar or equal to 0.006.
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Boucenna, M. S., Morisi, S., Shafi, Q., & Valle, J. W. F. (2014). Inflation and majoron dark matter in the neutrino seesaw mechanism. Phys. Rev. D, 90(5), 055023–6pp.
Abstract: We propose that inflation and dark matter have a common origin, connected to the neutrino mass generation scheme. As a model we consider spontaneous breaking of global lepton number within the seesaw mechanism. We show that it provides an acceptable inflationary scenario consistent with the recent cosmic microwave background B-mode observation by the BICEP2 experiment. The scheme may also account for the baryon asymmetry of the Universe through leptogenesis for reasonable parameter choices.
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Maji, R., Park, W. I., & Shafi, Q. (2023). Gravitational waves from walls bounded by strings in SO(10) model of pseudo-Goldstone dark matter. Phys. Lett. B, 845, 138127–5pp.
Abstract: We explore the gravitational wave spectrum generated by string-wall structures in an SO (10) (Spin(10)) based scenario of pseudo-Goldstone boson dark matter (pGDM) particle. This dark matter candidate is a linear combination of the Standard Model (SM) singlets present in the 126 and 16 dimensional Higgs fields. The Higgs 126-plet vacuum expectation value (VEV) < 126(H)> leaves unbroken the Z(2) subgroup of Z(4), the center of SO (10). Among other things, this yields topologically stable cosmic strings with a string tension μsimilar to < 126(H)>(2). The subsequent (spontaneous) breaking of Z(2) at a significantly lower scale by the 16-plet VEV < 16(H)> leads to the appearance of domain walls bounded by the strings produced earlier. We display the gravitational wave spectrum for G μvalues varying between 10(-15) and 10(-9) (< 126(H)> similar to 10(11) – 10(14) GeV), and < 16(H)> similar to 0.1 – 10(2) TeV range (G denotes Newton's constant.) These predictions can be tested, as we show, by a variety of (proposed) experiments including LISA, ET, CE and others.
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Lazarides, G., Reig, M., Shafi, Q., Srivastava, R., & Valle, J. W. F. (2019). Spontaneous Breaking of Lepton Number and the Cosmological Domain Wall Problem. Phys. Rev. Lett., 122(15), 151301–5pp.
Abstract: We show that if global lepton number symmetry is spontaneously broken in a postinflation epoch, then it can lead to the formation of cosmological domain walls. This happens in the well-known “Majoron paradigm” for neutrino mass generation. We propose some realistic examples that allow spontaneous lepton number breaking to be safe from such domain walls.
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