Non-minimal Higgs inflation

The current results from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) completed the particle zoo of the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics by the discovery of a Higgs boson, while at the same time showing no signs of any beyond the SM physics. The first results from the Planck satellite further confirm the inflationary scenario for the early Universe and favour a simple inflationary scenario with only one slow rolling scalar field. The question remains, whether it is needed to add more particle states to the SM to make the inflation possible, or can it be explained with the already present ones? The fact that our universe is almost flat, homogeneous and isotropic is often considered as a strong indication that the Standard Model (SM) of elementary particles is not complete. Indeed, these puzzles,together with the problem of generation of (almost) scale invariant spectrum of perturbations, necessary for structure formation, are most elegantly solved by inflation. The majority of present models of inflation require an introduction of an additional scalar—the inflaton. This hypothetical particle may appear in a natural or not so natural way in different extensions of the SM, involving Grand Unified Theories (GUTs), supersymmetry, string theory, extra dimensions, etc. Inflaton properties are constrained by the observations of fluctuations of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) and the matter distribution in the universe.