Ultralight dark matter from non-slowroll inflation
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arXiv
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2025
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| _version_ | 1866911116852985856 |
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| author | La Rosa, Martina Tasinato, Gianmassimo |
| author_facet | La Rosa, Martina Tasinato, Gianmassimo |
| contents | The longitudinal mode of a massive vector field, generated during inflation, offers a well-motivated and phenomenologically rich candidate for dark matter. We show that a rapid variation in the mass of the vector boson, occurring during a brief phase of non-slowroll inflationary evolution, can naturally give rise to extremely small vector masses after inflation ends, corresponding to an ultralight dark matter candidate. This mechanism predicts a stochastic gravitational-wave background, generated at second order by non-adiabatic longitudinal vector fluctuations and amplified at very low frequencies, yielding a distinctive observational signature of the scenario. By leveraging a brief departure from slowroll dynamics during inflation - commonly invoked in scenarios that produce primordial black holes - our framework establishes a novel connection between ultralight vector dark matter and primordial black hole physics, suggesting a possible unified setting for mixed dark matter scenarios. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2508_16455 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Ultralight dark matter from non-slowroll inflation La Rosa, Martina Tasinato, Gianmassimo Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics High Energy Physics - Theory The longitudinal mode of a massive vector field, generated during inflation, offers a well-motivated and phenomenologically rich candidate for dark matter. We show that a rapid variation in the mass of the vector boson, occurring during a brief phase of non-slowroll inflationary evolution, can naturally give rise to extremely small vector masses after inflation ends, corresponding to an ultralight dark matter candidate. This mechanism predicts a stochastic gravitational-wave background, generated at second order by non-adiabatic longitudinal vector fluctuations and amplified at very low frequencies, yielding a distinctive observational signature of the scenario. By leveraging a brief departure from slowroll dynamics during inflation - commonly invoked in scenarios that produce primordial black holes - our framework establishes a novel connection between ultralight vector dark matter and primordial black hole physics, suggesting a possible unified setting for mixed dark matter scenarios. |
| title | Ultralight dark matter from non-slowroll inflation |
| topic | Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics High Energy Physics - Theory |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.16455 |