Particle physics implications of Wilkinson microwave anisotropy project measurements

We present an overview of the implications of the WMAP data for particle physics. The standard parameter set ∈, η and ξ characterising the inflaton potential can be related to the power-law indices characterising deviation of the CMB spectrum from the scale invariant form. Different classes of inflation potentials are in turn naturally associated with different unified schemes. At present WMAP does not exclude any but a few simple unified models. In particular, hybrid models favoured by supersymmetric unification continue to be viable. However future improvement in data leading to better determination of the ‘running’ of power-law indices should help to narrow the possibilities for unified models. The main conclusion is that WMAP is consistent with the paradigm of GUT scale (10¹⁶ GeV) inflation.