Hillclimbing inflation

We propose a new class of inflationary models in which inflation takes place while the inflaton is climbing up a potential hill due to a coupling to gravity. We study their attractor behavior, and investigate its relation with known attractors. We also discuss a possible realization of this type of models with the natural inflation, and show that the inflationary predictions come well within the region consistent with the observation of the cosmic microwave background.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Sterile neutrino dark matter from right-handed neutrino oscillations

We study a scenario where sterile neutrino (either warm or cold) dark matter (DM) is produced through (nonresonant) oscillations among right-handed neutrinos (RHNs) and can constitute the whole DM in the Universe, in contrast to the conventional sterile neutrino production through its mixing with the left-handed neutrinos. The lightest RHN can be sterile neutrino DM whose mixing with left-handed neutrinos is sufficiently small while heavier RHNs can have non-negligible mixings with left-handed neutrinos to explain the neutrino masses by the seesaw mechanism. We also demonstrate that, in our scenario, the production of sterile RHN DM from the decay of a heavier RHN is subdominant compared with the RHN oscillation production due to the X-ray and small-scale structure constraints.Comment: Version to appear in PR

Next to new minimal standard model

We suggest a minimal extension of the standard model, which can explain current experimental data of the dark matter, small neutrino masses and baryon asymmetry of the universe, inflation, and dark energy, and achieve gauge coupling unification. The gauge coupling unification can explain the charge quantization, and be realized by introducing six new fields. We investigate the vacuum stability, coupling perturbativity, and correct dark matter abundance in this model by use of current experimental data.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figure

Planck scale boundary conditions in the standard model with singlet scalar dark matter

We investigate Planck scale boundary conditions on the Higgs sector of the standard model with a gauge singlet scalar dark matter. We will find that vanishing self-coupling and Veltman condition at the Planck scale are realized with the 126 GeV Higgs mass and top pole mass, 172 GeV $\lesssim M_t\lesssim$ 173.5 GeV, where a correct abundance of scalar dark matter is obtained with mass of 300 GeV $\lesssim m_S \lesssim$ 1 TeV. It means that the Higgs potential is flat at the Planck scale, and this situation can not be realized in the standard model with the top pole mass.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, version accepted for publication in JHE