Electroweak baryogenesis from preheating

Abstract

The origin of the matter-antimatter asymmetry remains one of the most fundamental problems of cosmology. In this talk I present a novel scenario for baryogenesis at the electroweak scale, without the need for a first order phase transition. It is based on the out of equilibrium resonant production of long wavelength Higgs and gauge configurations, at the end of a period of inflation, which induces a large rate of sphaleron transitions, before thermalization at a temperature below critical.

Comments: 7 pages, plenary talk at COSMO99, Trieste, Sep. 1999