Detailed qualitative dynamical analysis of a cosmological Higgs field

Abstract

A scalar cosmological Higgs field is expected to exist in our universe in order to create inertial mass. Some results obtained at LHC suggest that this idea must be reconsidered. The cosmological effects of scalar fields have been proposed as a mechanism to drive the evolution of the universe in various scenarios. In this paper we investigate, from the dynamical systems perspective, the evolution of a Universe consisting of a matter component $$\rho $$ together with a scalar field $$\phi $$ exhibiting a quartic polynomial self-interacting potential. We consider an homogeneous and isotropic flat Friedmann–Robertson–Walker metric. Center Manifold Theory is employed to investigate the dynamics near a non-hyperbolic critical point. We prove that there are two possible late time attractors corresponding to stable de Sitter solutions.