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The standard model Higgs boson can serve as the inflaton field of slow roll inflationary models provided it exhibits a large non-minimal coupling with the gravitational scalar curvature. The Higgs boson self interactions and its couplings with a standard model singlet scalar serving as the source of dark matter are then subject to cosmological constraints. These bounds, which can be more stringent than those arising from vacuum stability and perturbative triviality alone, still allow values for the Higgs boson mass which should be accessible at the LHC. As the Higgs boson coupling to the dark matter strengthens, lower values of the Higgs boson mass consistent with the cosmological data are allowed.

A nonlinearly realized supersymmetric action describing the invariant couplings of the Goldstino to matter is constructed. Using the Akulov-Volkov Lagrangian, any operator can be made part of a supersymmetric invariant action. Of particular interest are interaction terms which include the product of the Akulov-Volkov Lagrangian with the ordinary matter Lagrangian as well as the coupling of the product of the covariant derivative of the Goldstino field to the matter supersymmetry current. The later is the lowest dimensional operator linear in the Goldstino field. A Goldstino GoldbergerTreiman relation is established and shown to be satisfied by the effective action.

In models of spontaneously broken supersymmetry, certain light gravitino processes are governed by the coupling of its Goldstino components. The rules for constructing SUSY and gauge invariant actions involving the Goldstino couplings to matter and gauge fields are presented. The explicit operator construction is found to be at variance with some previously reported claims. A phenomenological consequence arising from light gravitino interactions in supernova is reexamined and scrutinized.

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