Affleck-Dine Baryogenesis after Thermal Inflation

Abstract

We argue that an extension of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model that gives rise to viable thermal inflation, and so does not suffer from a Polonyi/moduli problem, should contain right-handed neutrinos which acquire their masses due to the vacuum expectation value of the flaton that drives thermal inflation. This strongly disfavours SO(10) Grand Unified Theories. The $\mu$-term of the MSSM should also arise due to the vev of the flaton. With the extra assumption that $ m_L^2 - m_{H_u}^2 < 0 $, but of course $ m_L^2 - m_{H_u}^2 + |\mu|^2 > 0 $, we show that a complicated Affleck-Dine type of baryogenesis employing an $LH_u$ $D$-flat direction can naturally generate the baryon asymmetry of the Universe.