ASPECTS OF WARM-FLAT DIRECTIONS

Abstract

Considering the mechanism of dissipative slow-roll that has been used in warm inflation scenario, we show that dissipation may alter usual cosmological scenarios associated with SUSY-flat directions. We mainly consider SUSY-flat directions that have strong interactions with nonflat directions and may cause strong dissipation both in thermal and nonthermal backgrounds. An example is the Affleck–Dine mechanism in which dissipation may create significant (both qualitative and quantitative) discrepancies between the conventional scenario and the dissipative one. We also discuss several mechanisms of generating curvature perturbations in which the dissipative field, which is distinguished from the inflaton field, can be used as the source of cosmological perturbations. Considering the Morikawa–Sasaki dissipative coefficient, the damping caused by the dissipation may be significant for many MSSM flat directions even if the dissipation is far from thermal equilibrium.