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Register a new userHidden Dark Matter from Starobinsky Inflation
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The Starobinsky inflation model is one of the simplest inflation models that is consistent with the cosmic microwave background observations. In order to explain dark matter of the universe, we consider a minimal extension of the Starobinsky inflation model with introducing the dark sector which communicates with the visible sector only via the gravitational interaction. In Starobinsky inflation model, a sizable amount of dark-sector particle may be produced by the inflaton decay. Thus, a scalar, a fermion or a vector boson in the dark sector may become dark matter. We pay particular attention to the case with dark non-Abelian gauge interaction to make a dark glueball a dark matter candidate. In the minimal setup, we show that it is difficult to explain the observed dark matter abundance without conflicting observational constraints on the coldness and the self-interaction of dark matter. We propose scenarios in which the dark glueball, as well as other dark-sector particles, from the inflaton decay become viable dark matter candidates. We also discuss possibilities to test such scenarios.
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We discuss the possibility of producing a light dark photon dark matter through a coupling between the dark photon field and the inflaton. The dark photon with a large wavelength is efficiently produced due to the inflaton motion during inflation and becomes non-relativistic before the time of matter-radiation equality. We compute the amount of production analytically. The correct relic abundance is realized with a dark photon mass extending down to $10^{-21} , rm eV$.
In the Starobinsky model of inflation, the observed dark matter abundance can be produced from the direct decay of the inflaton field only in a very narrow spectrum of close-to-conformal scalar fields and spinors of mass $sim 10^7$ GeV. This spectrum can be, however, significantly broadened in the presence of effective non-renormalizable interactions between the dark and the visible sectors. In particular, we show that UV freeze-in can efficiently generate the right dark matter abundance for a large range of masses spanning from the keV to the PeV scale and arbitrary spin, without significantly altering the heating dynamics. We also consider the contribution of effective interactions to the inflaton decay into dark matter.
We present a scenario of vector dark matter production from symmetry breaking at the end of inflation. In this model, the accumulated energy density associated with the quantum fluctuations of the dark photon accounts for the present energy density of dark matter. The inflaton is a real scalar field while a heavy complex scalar field, such as the waterfall of hybrid inflation, is charged under the dark gauge field. After the heavy field becomes tachyonic at the end of inflation, rolling rapidly towards its global minimum, the dark photon acquires mass via the Higgs mechanism. To prevent the decay of the vector field energy density during inflation, we introduce couplings between the inflaton and the gauge field such that the energy is pumped to the dark sector. The setup can generate the observed dark matter abundance for a wide range of the dark photons mass and with the reheat temperature around $10^{12}$ GeV. The model predicts the formation of cosmic strings at the end of inflation with the tensions which are consistent with the CMB upper bounds.
Higgs inflation and $R^2$-inflation (Starobinsky model) are two limits of the same quantum model, hereafter called Starobinsky-Higgs. We analyse the two-loop action of the Higgs-like scalar $phi$ in the presence of: 1) non-minimal coupling ($xi$) and 2) quadratic curvature terms. The latter are generated at the quantum level with $phi$-dependent couplings ($tildealpha$) even if their tree-level couplings ($alpha$) are tuned to zero. Therefore, the potential always depends on both Higgs field $phi$ and scalaron $rho$, hence multi-field inflation is a quantum consequence. The effects of the quantum (one- and two-loop) corrections on the potential $hat W(phi,rho)$ and on the spectral index are discussed, showing that the Starobinsky-Higgs model is in general stable in their presence. Two special cases are also considered: first, for a large $xi$ in the quantum action one can integrate $phi$ and generate a refined Starobinsky model which contains additional terms $xi^2 R^2ln^p (xi vert Rvert/mu^2)$, $p=1,2$ ($mu$ is the subtraction scale). These generate corrections linear in the scalaron to the usual Starobinsky potential and a running scalaron mass. Second, for a small fixed Higgs field $phi^2 ll M_p^2/xi$ and a vanishing classical coefficient of the $R^2$-term, we show that the usual Starobinsky inflation is generated by the quantum corrections alone, for a suitable non-minimal coupling ($xi$).
One contribution to any dark sectors abundance comes from its gravitational production during inflation. If the dark sector is weakly coupled to the inflaton and the Standard Model, this can be its only production mechanism. For non-interacting dark sectors, such as a free massive fermion or a free massive vector field, this mechanism has been studied extensively. In this paper we show, via the example of dark massive QED, that the presence of interactions can result in a vastly different mass for the dark matter (DM) particle, which may well coincide with the range probed by upcoming experiments. In the context of dark QED we study the evolution of the energy density in the dark sector after inflation. Inflation produces a cold vector condensate consisting of an enormous number of bosons, which via interesting processes - Schwinger pair production, strong field electromagnetic cascades, and plasma dynamics - transfers its energy to a small number of dark electrons and triggers thermalization of the dark sector. The resulting dark electron DM mass range is from 50 MeV to 30 TeV, far different from both the $10^{-5}$ eV mass of the massive photon dark matter in the absence of dark electrons, and from the $10^9$ GeV dark electron mass in the absence of dark photons. This can significantly impact the search strategies for dark QED and, more generally, theories with a self-interacting DM sector. In the presence of kinetic mixing, a dark electron in this mass range can be searched for with upcoming direct detection experiments, such as SENSEI-100g and OSCURA.
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