Nonequilibrium electroweak baryogenesis at preheating after inflation - art. no. 123504

We present a novel scenario for baryogenesis in a hybrid inflation model at the electroweak scare, in which the standard model Higgs field triggers th e end of inflation. One of the conditions for successful baryogenesis, the departure from thermal equilibrium, is naturally achieved at the stage of p reheating after inflation. The inflaton oscillations induce large occupatio n numbers for long-wavelength configurations of the Higgs and gauge fields, which leads to a large rate of sphaleron transitions. We estimate this rat e during the first stages of reheating and evaluate the amount of baryons p roduced due to a particular type of higher-dimensional CP violating operato r. The universe thermalizes through fermion interactions, at a temperature below critical, T(rh)less than or similar to 100 GeV, preventing the wash-o ut of the produced baryon asymmetry. Numerical simulations in 1+1 dimension s support our theoretical analyses. [S0556-2821(99)00922-4].