Search results for "Inflation"
showing 10 items of 210 documents
Dark matter from gravitational particle production at reheating
2015
We show that curvature induced particle production at reheating generates adiabatic dark matter if there are non-minimally coupled spectator scalars weakly coupled to visible matter. The observed dark matter abundance implies an upper bound on spectator masses $m$ and non-minimal coupling values $\xi$. For example, assuming quadratic inflation, instant reheating and a single spectator scalar with only gravitational couplings, the observed dark matter abundance is obtained for $m\sim 0.1$ GeV and $\xi \sim 1$. Larger mass and coupling values of the spectator are excluded as they would lead to overproduction of dark matter.
Cascading dust inflation in Born-Infeld gravity
2015
In the framework of Born-Infeld inspired gravity theories, which deviates from General Relativity (GR) in the high curvature regime, we discuss the viability of Cosmic Inflation without scalar fields. For energy densities higher than the new mass scale of the theory, a gravitating dust component is shown to generically induce an accelerated expansion of the Universe. Within such a simple scenario, inflation gracefully exits when the GR regime is recovered, but the Universe would remain matter dominated. In order to implement a reheating era after inflation, we then consider inflation to be driven by a mixture of unstable dust species decaying into radiation. Because the speed of sound gravi…
Understanding the dynamics of field theories far from equilibrium
2019
In recent years, there have been important advances in understanding the far-from-equilibrium dynamics in different physical systems. In ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions, the combination of different methods led to the development of a weak-coupling description of the early-time dynamics. The numerical observation of a classical universal attractor played a crucial role for this. Such attractors, also known as non-thermal fixed points (NTFPs), have been now predicted for different scalar and gauge theories. An important universal NTFP emerges in scalar theories modeling ultra-cold atoms, inflation or dark matter, and its scaling properties have been recently observed in an ultra-cold…
Induced-Gravity Inflation in Supergravity Confronted with Planck2013 and BICEP2
2015
Supersymmetric versions of induced-gravity inflation are f ormulated within Super- gravity (SUGRA) employing two gauge singlet chiral superfie lds. The proposed superpotential is uniquely determined by applying a continuous R and a discrete Z2 symmetry. We also employ a logarithmic Kahler potential respecting the symmetries above and including all the allowed terms up to fourth order in powers of the various fields. When the Kahle r manifold exhibits a no-scale-type symmetry, the model predicts spectral index ns ≃ 0.963 and tensor-to-scalar r ≃ 0.004. Beyond no-scale SUGRA, ns and r depend crucially on the coefficient kSΦ involved in the fourth order term, which mixes the inflaton Φ with th…
Harrison-Zel'dovich primordial spectrum is consistent with observations
2010
Inflation predicts primordial scalar perturbations with a nearly scale-invariant spectrum and a spectral index approximately unity (the Harrison--Zel'dovich (HZ) spectrum). The first important step for inflationary cosmology is to check the consistency of the HZ primordial spectrum with current observations. Recent analyses have claimed that a HZ primordial spectrum is excluded at more than 99% c.l.. Here we show that the HZ spectrum is only marginally disfavored if one considers a more general reionization scenario. Data from the Planck mission will settle the issue.
Gravity waves from non-minimal quadratic inflation
2015
We discuss non-minimal quadratic inflation in supersymmetric (SUSY) and non-SUSY models which entails a linear coupling of the inflaton to gravity. Imposing a lower bound on the parameter cR, involved in the coupling between the inflaton and the Ricci scalar curvature, inflation can be attained even for subplanckian values of the inflaton while the corresponding effective theory respects the perturbative unitarity up to the Planck scale. Working in the non-SUSY context we also consider radiative corrections to the inflationary potential due to a possible coupling of the inflaton to bosons or fermions. We find ranges of the parameters, depending mildly on the renormalization scale, with adju…
From hybrid to quadratic inflation with high-scale supersymmetry breaking
2014
Motivated by the reported discovery of inflationary gravity waves by the BICEP2 experiment, we propose an inflationary scenario in supergravity, based on the standard superpotential used in hybrid inflation. The new model yields a tensor-to-scalar ratio r ~ 0.14 and scalar spectral index ns ~ 0.964, corresponding to quadratic (chaotic) inflation. The important new ingredients are the high-scale, (1.6-10) x 10^13 GeV, soft supersymmetry breaking mass for the gauge singlet inflaton field and a shift symmetry imposed on the K\"ahler potential. The end of inflation is accompanied, as in the earlier hybrid inflation models, by the breaking of a gauge symmetry at (1.2-7.1) x 10^16 GeV, comparable…
Gravitino dark matter with neutralino NLSP in the constrained NMSSM
2010
The gravitino dark matter with neutralino NLSP hypothesis is investigated in the framework of NMSSM. We have considered both the thermal and non-thermal gravitino production mechanisms, and we have taken into account all the collider and cosmological constraints. The maximum allowed reheating temperature after inflation, as well as the maximum allowed gravitino mass are determined.
Probing the creatable character of perturbed Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universes
2008
We discuss whether some perturbed Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW) universes could be creatable, i. e., could have vanishing energy, linear momentum and angular momentum, as it could be expectable if the Universe arose as a quantum fluctuation. On account of previous results, the background is assumed to be either closed (with very small curvature) or flat. In the first case, fully arbitrary linear perturbations are considered; whereas in the flat case, it is assumed the existence of: (i) inflationary scalar perturbations, that is to say, Gaussian adiabatic scalar perturbations having an spectrum close to the Harrison-Zel'dovich one, and (ii) arbitrary tensor perturbations. We conclude that…
Slinky inflation
2005
We present a new approach to quintessential inflation, in which both dark energy and inflation are explained by the evolution of a single scalar field. We start from a simple scalar potential with both oscillatory and exponential behavior. We employ the conventional reheating mechanism of new inflation, in which the scalar decays to light fermions with a decay width that is proportional to the scalar mass. Because our scalar mass is proportional to the Hubble rate, this gives adequate reheating at early times while shutting off at late times to preserve quintessence and satisfy nucleosynthesis constraints. We discuss a simple model which solves the horizon, flatness, and "why now" problems.…