High Energy Physics Seminar TODAY - Berghaus - venue: Euler LH

[HECAP - Margherita Di Giovannantonio]

*_HIGH ENERGY PHYSICS SEMINARS_*
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*Thursday, 30 April *2026, at *16:00* - *_Euler Lecture 
Hall_***-*https://indico.ictp.it/event/11303/*

Kim Berghaus (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology)


*“Warm Inflation with the Standard Model"*
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_Abstract_

In recent work we showed that the strong nuclear force of the Standard 
Model may have generated the heat of the hot Big Bang itself. It is 
widely believed that cosmic inflation, the era of accelerated expansion 
in the infant universe, occurred while the cosmos was cold and empty, 
requiring some unknown process to subsequently generate the hot plasma 
we observe. Our work demonstrates that the early universe may have 
instead been immersed in a hot bath of known elementary particles during 
inflation. The proposed mechanism couples gluons, which mediate the 
strong force in atomic nuclei, with an axion-like particle that drives 
inflation. This coupling induces friction that provides the energy to 
heat the inflating universe. In this talk, I will show that “warm 
inflation” (a hypothesis first proposed in 1995) is viable using 
Standard Model particles and yields testable predictions for upcoming 
observations. Implications for strong CP and dark matter will be discussed.

To attend via _*Zoom*_, please *_register_* here:
https://zoom.us/meeting/register/bmbF1j-5TZCpeXLSUonyQg