SUSY, Inflation and the Origin of Matter in the Universe

Abstract

We consider the Standard Models of particle physics and hot big bang cosmology, and review the theoretical and experimental motivations for extending these models to include supersymmetry and inflation. An obvious extension would be to unite these two models into a single all-encompassing theory. We identify a list of theoretical challenges that such a theory must address, which we illustrate with a simple model - a variant of the next-to-minimal supersymmetric Standard Model - that addresses these challenges.