On the prospects of thermalization of axion-SU(2) inflation
Axion inflation models coupled to a gauge sector via a Chern-Simons term exhibit an array of interesting phenomenology including a chiral gravitational wave spectrum and primordial black hole production. They may also provide a useful mechanism for generating lepton asymmetry. The possibility to emb...
| Autores: | , , , |
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| Formato: | artículo |
| Estado: | Versión enviada para evaluación y publicación |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2025 |
| País: | España |
| Recursos: | Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) |
| Repositorio: | DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:dnet:digitalcsic_::e80ba4bec143caeb9c77779eaf106cdf |
| Acesso em linha: | http://hdl.handle.net/10261/429156 https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105019199393?origin=resultslist |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palavra-chave: | axions inflation particle physics - cosmology connection physics of the early universe |
| Resumo: | Axion inflation models coupled to a gauge sector via a Chern-Simons term exhibit an array of interesting phenomenology including a chiral gravitational wave spectrum and primordial black hole production. They may also provide a useful mechanism for generating lepton asymmetry. The possibility to embed this class of models in UV-finite theories and their intriguing, testable, signatures make for a compelling candidate for early acceleration. Due to the Chern-Simons coupling, gauge modes may undergo a finite tachyonic growth during which non-linearities become important. Naturally, this raises the question of whether such (self) interactions can lead to thermalization during inflation. We provide a set of useful criteria for sustained thermalization in an axion-SU(2) model and chart the parameter space of the model accordingly. We find that the cold inflation regime constitutes a very significant fraction of the parameter space. Our analysis accounts for a initially vanishing as well as non-zero gauge field vacuum expectation value (VEV). We also consider the possibility of a dynamically generated VEV. © 2025 IOP Publishing Ltd and Sissa Medialab. All rights, including for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies, are reserved. |
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