The inflaton portal to dark matter

Heurtier, Lucien

doi:10.1007/jhep12(2017)072

Cited by 17 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 86 publications

(131 reference statements)

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“…Also, we note that qualitatively nothing changes in the above discussion if the inflaton is not the SM Higgs but some other self-interacting scalar with a λφ 4 potential. Such scalar would necessarily belong to the BSM sector and could therefore be connected to other unresolved problems in modern physics, such as dark matter [37,65,[117][118][119][120][121][122] or the nature of the electroweak phase transition [67]. However, in practice many details, such as reheating and its effect on the number of e-folds, and therefore also the predictions of such models for inflationary observables would be different from the case where the SM Higgs is the inflaton field and which therefore allow one to distinguish between different models [39,65,117].…”

Section: Higgs Inflationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tracing the high energy theory of gravity: an introduction to Palatini inflation

Tenkanen

2020

Gen Relativ Gravit

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We present an introduction to cosmic inflation in the context of Palatini gravity, which is an interesting alternative to the usual metric theory of gravity. In the latter case only the metric g µν determines the geometry of space-time, whereas in the former case both the metric and the space-time connection Γ λ µν are a priori independent variables -a choice which can lead to a theory of gravity different from the metric one. In scenarios where the field(s) responsible for cosmic inflation are coupled non-minimally to gravity or the gravitational sector is otherwise extended, assumptions of the underlying gravitational degrees of freedom can have a big impact on the observational consequences of inflation. We demonstrate this explicitly by reviewing several interesting and well-motivated scenarios including Higgs inflation, R 2 inflation, and ξ-attractor models. We also discuss some prospects for future research and argue why r = 10 −3 is a particularly important goal for future missions that search for signatures of primordial gravitational waves.

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Section: Higgs Inflationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tracing the high energy theory of gravity: an introduction to Palatini inflation

Tenkanen

2020

Gen Relativ Gravit

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“…1 For other scenarios connecting FIMP DM and inflation, see Refs. [26][27][28][29]. 2 Radiative corrections in a curved background generate an extra term to the scalar potential, VG = ξ h h 2 R + ξss 2 R, constituting of the non-minimal couplings to gravity ξ h , ξs of both the Higgs and singlet, respectively [32,33].…”

Section: Minimal Scenario: the Basic Argumentmentioning

confidence: 99%

A novel way to determine the scale of inflation

Enqvist

Hardwick

Tenkanen

et al. 2018

J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys.

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We show that in the Feebly Interacting Massive Particle (FIMP) model of Dark Matter (DM), one may express the inflationary energy scale H * as a function of three otherwise unrelated quantities, the DM isocurvature perturbation amplitude, its mass and its self-coupling constant, independently of the tensor-to-scalar ratio. The FIMP model assumes that there exists a real scalar particle that alone constitutes the DM content of the Universe and couples to the Standard Model via a Higgs portal. We consider carefully the various astrophysical, cosmological and model constraints, accounting also for variations in inflationary dynamics and the reheating history, to derive a robust estimate for H * that is confined to a relatively narrow range. We point out that, within the context of the FIMP DM model, one may thus determine H * reliably even in the absence of observable tensor perturbations.

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“…In our model, in the same spirit as Ref. [27], the only contact between the visible and the dark sector will be through the exchange of an inflaton particle. We will fix the matter content of our model to be composed of • A dark-matter candidate, taken to be a Dirac fermion, denoted by χ;…”

Section: The Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Due to the large mass of the inflaton, such an interaction is similar to the interaction through which dark matter annihilates into a pair of N fermions through the inflaton portal, and therefore is too feeble to equilibrate the two baths ever. This was already used in [26,27] to consider scenarios of dark matter production out of equilibrium.…”

Section: Visible Sectormentioning

confidence: 99%

Inflaton portal to a highly decoupled EeV dark matter particle

Heurtier

Huang

2019

Phys. Rev. D

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We explore the possibility that the dark-matter relic abundance is generated in a context where the inflaton is the only mediator between the visible and the hidden sectors of our universe. Due to the relatively large mass of the inflaton field, such a portal leads to an extremely feeble interaction between the dark and the visible sectors suggesting that the dark sector cannot reach any thermal equilibrium with the visible sector. After the two sectors are populated by the decay of the inflaton, a heavy dark-matter particle thermally decouples within the dark sector. Later, a lighter dark particle, whose decay width is naturally suppressed by the inflaton propagator, decays into the visible sector after it dominates the energy density of universe. This process dilutes the dark-matter relic density by injecting entropy in the visible sector. We show that an inflaton mass of O(10 13 ) GeV together with couplings of order one are fully compatible with a dark-matter relic abundance Ωh 2 ∼ 0.1. As a general feature of the model, the entropy dilution mechanism is accompanied by a period of early matter domination, which modifies the amount of e-folds of inflation necessary to accommodate Planck data. Moreover, the coupling of the inflaton to the dark and visible sectors brings loop contributions to the inflationary potential which can destabilize the inflation trajectory. Considering all these complementary constraints, we show that, in the context of a plateau-inflation scenario such as the α-attractor model, the inflaton can constitute a viable mediator between the visible sector and a ∼ 10 EeV dark-matter candidate. Furthermore, we show that improved constraints on the tensor-to-scalar ratio and spectral index could potentially rule out dark-matter scenarios of this sort in the future. *

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The inflaton portal to dark matter

Cited by 17 publications

References 86 publications

Tracing the high energy theory of gravity: an introduction to Palatini inflation

Tracing the high energy theory of gravity: an introduction to Palatini inflation

A novel way to determine the scale of inflation

Inflaton portal to a highly decoupled EeV dark matter particle

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