Nambu-Goldstone Affleck-Dine baryogenesis

Abstract

The Affleck-Dine mechanism creates the baryon asymmetry of the universe from an angular motion of a complex scalar field. The mechanism is efficient and allows for a low reheating temperature of the universe if the scalar field has a flat potential along its radial direction. We consider a possibility that the scalar field is a pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson arising from spontaneous breaking of an approximate global symmetry, so that the flatness of the potential is naturally understood. We construct a concrete realization of the idea based on chiral symmetry breaking in an SU(N) gauge theory. The Peccei-Quinn mechanism can be consistently incorporated into the model. We also comment on a possible impact of the model on early universe physics.