The dark aftermath of Higgs inflation

Abstract

In this letter we study the dynamics of the late Universe when a nonminimally coupled Higgs field is present. In general, the nonminimal coupling leads to a nontrivial mixing between the gravitational degrees of freedom and the Goldstone massless bosons. We know that this is irrelevant during the inflationary phase. In contrast, in the late Universe the nonminimal coupling affects the classical equations of motion, leading to an acceleration of the expansion rate or to a collapse that forms Q-balls.