The inflaton as an MSSM Higgs and open string modulus monodromy inflation

It has been recently pointed out that high scale inflation, as recently hinted by the BICEP2 results, is consistent with the identification of an inflaton mass mI≃1013 GeV with the SUSY breaking scale in an MSSM with a fine-tuned SM Higgs. This identification leads to a Higgs mass mh≃126 GeV , consistent with LHC measurements. Here we propose that this naturally suggests to identify the inflaton with the heavy MSSM Higgs system. The fact that the extrapolated Higgs coupling λSM≃0 at scales below the Planck scale suggests the Higgs degrees of freedom could be associated with a Wilson line or D-brane position modulus in string theory. The Higgs system then has a shift symmetry and an N=2 structure which guarantees that its potential has an approximate quadratic chaotic inflation form. These moduli in string compactifications, being compact, allow for trans-Planckian inflaton field range analogous to a version of monodromy inflation

BICEP2, the Higgs mass and the SUSY-breaking scale

Recent BICEP2 results on CMB polarisation B-modes suggest a high value for the inflation scale <math altimg="si1.gif" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><msubsup><mrow><mi>V</mi></mrow><mrow><mn>0</mn></mrow><mrow><mn>1</mn><mo stretchy="false">/</mo><mn>4</mn></mrow></msubsup><mo>≃</mo><msup><mrow><mn>10</mn></mrow><mrow><mn>16</mn></mrow></msup><mtext> </mtext><mtext>GeV</mtext></math> , giving experimental evidence for a physical scale in between the EW scale and the Planck mass. We propose that this new high scale could be interpreted as evidence for a high SUSY breaking scale with MSSM sparticles with masses of order <math altimg="si2.gif" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><msub><mrow><mi>M</mi></mrow><mrow><mi>s</mi><mi>s</mi></mrow></msub><mo>≃</mo><msup><mrow><mn>10</mn></mrow><mrow><mn>12</mn></mrow></msup><mtext>–</mtext><msup><mrow><mn>10</mn></mrow><mrow><mn>13</mn></mrow></msup><mtext> </mtext><mtext>GeV</mtext></math> . We show that such a large value for <math altimg="si3.gif" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><msub><mrow><mi>M</mi></mrow><mrow><mi>s</mi><mi>s</mi></mrow></msub></math> is consistent with a Higgs mass around 126 GeV. We briefly discuss some possible particle physics implications of this assumption