Baryogenesis in the wake of inflation

Abstract

Electroweak baryogenesis could be very efficient at the end of an electroweak-scale inflation. Reheating that followed inflation could create a highly non-equilibrium plasma, in which the baryon number violating transitions were rapid. In addition, the time-dependent motions of the scalar degrees of freedom could provide the requisite CP violation. If the final reheat temperature was below 100 GeV, there was no wash-out of the baryon asymmetry after thermalization. The observed value of the baryon asymmetry can be attained in a number of models, some of which do not require a significant departure from the Standard Model.