Supersymmetry Breaking in the Early Universe

Supersymmetry breaking in the early universe induces scalar soft potentials with curvature of order the Hubble constant. This has a dramatic effect on the coherent production of scalar fields along flat directions. For the moduli problem it generically gives a concrete realization of the problem by determining the field value subsequent to inflation. However it might suggest a solution if the minimum of the induced potential coincides with the true minimum. The induced Hubble scale mass also has important implications for the Affleck-Dine mechanism of baryogenesis. This mechanism requires large squark or slepton expectation values to develop along flat directions in the early universe. This is generally not the case if the induced mass squared is positive, but does occur if it is negative. The resulting baryon to entropy ratio depends mainly on the dimension of the nonrenormalizable operator in the superpotential which stabilizes the flat direction, and the reheat temperature after inflation. Unlike the original scenario, it is possible to obtain an acceptable baryon asymmetry without subsequent entropy releases.