Gravitational Production of Heavy Particles during and after Inflation
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arXiv
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2024
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| author | Racco, Davide Verner, Sarunas Xue, Wei |
| author_facet | Racco, Davide Verner, Sarunas Xue, Wei |
| contents | We investigate the gravitational production of a scalar field $χ$ with a mass exceeding the Hubble scale during inflation $m_χ\gtrsim H_I$, employing both analytical and numerical approaches. We demonstrate that the steepest descent method effectively captures the epochs and yields of gravitational production in a compact and simple analytical framework. These analytical results align with the numerical solutions of the field equation. Our study covers three spacetime backgrounds: de Sitter, power-law inflation, and the Starobinsky inflation model. Within these models, we identify two distinct phases of particle production: during and after inflation. During inflation, we derive an accurate analytic expression for the particle production rate, accounting for a varying Hubble rate. After inflation, the additional burst of particle production depends on the inflaton mass around its minimum. When this mass is smaller than the Hubble scale during inflation, $H_I$, there is no significant extra production. However, if the inflaton mass is larger, post-inflation production becomes the dominant contribution. Furthermore, we explore the implications of gravitationally produced heavy fields for dark matter abundance, assuming their cosmological stability. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2405_13883 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Gravitational Production of Heavy Particles during and after Inflation Racco, Davide Verner, Sarunas Xue, Wei High Energy Physics - Phenomenology Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics We investigate the gravitational production of a scalar field $χ$ with a mass exceeding the Hubble scale during inflation $m_χ\gtrsim H_I$, employing both analytical and numerical approaches. We demonstrate that the steepest descent method effectively captures the epochs and yields of gravitational production in a compact and simple analytical framework. These analytical results align with the numerical solutions of the field equation. Our study covers three spacetime backgrounds: de Sitter, power-law inflation, and the Starobinsky inflation model. Within these models, we identify two distinct phases of particle production: during and after inflation. During inflation, we derive an accurate analytic expression for the particle production rate, accounting for a varying Hubble rate. After inflation, the additional burst of particle production depends on the inflaton mass around its minimum. When this mass is smaller than the Hubble scale during inflation, $H_I$, there is no significant extra production. However, if the inflaton mass is larger, post-inflation production becomes the dominant contribution. Furthermore, we explore the implications of gravitationally produced heavy fields for dark matter abundance, assuming their cosmological stability. |
| title | Gravitational Production of Heavy Particles during and after Inflation |
| topic | High Energy Physics - Phenomenology Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.13883 |