Flat direction condensate instabilities in the MSSM

Coherently oscillating scalar condensates formed along flat directions of the MSSM scalar potential are unstable with respect to spatial perturbations if the potential is flatter than phi^2, resulting in the formation of non-topological solitons such as Q-balls. Using renormalization group we calculate the corrections to the phi^2 potential for a range of flat directions and show that unstable condensates are a generic feature of the MSSM. Exceptions arise for an experimentally testable range of stop and gluino masses when there are large admixtures of stops in the flat direction scalar.Comment: 9 pages, 9 encapsulated postscript figure

Inflation in large N limit of supersymmetric gauge theories

Within supersymmetry we provide an example where the inflaton sector is derived from a gauge invariant polynomial of SU(N) or SO(N) gauge theory. Inflation in our model is driven by multi-flat directions, which assist accelerated expansion. We show that multi-flat directions can flatten the individual non-renormalizable potentials such that inflation can occur at sub-Planckian scales. We calculate the density perturbations and the spectral index, we find that the spectral index is closer to scale invariance for large N. In order to realize a successful cosmology we require large N of order, N~600.Comment: 10 pages, LaTeX2e, misprints corrected, version accepted for publishin

Simulations of Q-Ball Formation

The fragmentation of the Affleck-Dine condensate is studied by utilizing 3+1 dimensional numerical simulations. The 3+1 dimensional simulations confirm that the fragmentation process is very similar to the results obtained by 2+1 dimensional simulations. We find, however, that the average size of Q-balls in 3+1 dimensions is somewhat larger that in 2+1 dimensions. A filament type structure in the charge density is observed during the fragmentation process. The resulting final Q-ball distribution is strongly dependent on the initial conditions of the condensate and approaches a thermal one as the energy-charge ratio of the Affleck-Dine condensate increases.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures; corrected typos (v2,v3

Recent progress in Affleck-Dine baryogenesis

In the MSSM, cosmological scalar field condensates formed along flat directions of the scalar potential (Affleck-Dine condensates) are typically unstable with respect to formation of Q-balls, a type of non-topological soliton. I discuss the creation and growth of the quantum seed fluctuations which catalyse the collapse of the condensate. In D-term inflation models, the fluctuations of squark fields in the flat directions also give rise to isocurvature density fluctuations stored in the Affleck-Dine condensate. After the condensate breaks up, these can be perturbations in the baryon number, or, in the case where the present neutralino density comes directly from B-ball decay, perturbations in the number of dark matter neutralinos. The latter case results in a large enhancement of the isocurvature perturbation, which should be observable by PLANCK.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures; invited talk at COSMO9