Speaker
Description
Primordial gravitational waves (PGWs) serve as a unique window into the early Universe, offering a rare opportunity to bridge the gap between inflationary reheating and the microphysics of dark matter (DM). This talk explores how distinct PGW signatures can test novel physics scenarios beyond the standard model (SM), providing critical insights into the fundamental nature of the dark sector. We first examine the co-genesis of DM and high-scale leptogenesis, both produced via gravity-mediated processes during the reheating epoch. By utilizing Fisher forecasts and Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) analysis with mock data, we investigate the detection prospects for these signals in next-generation interferometry missions such as LISA and ET. Our results demonstrate that these missions can probe specific DM mass ranges and leptogenesis scales with a high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Furthermore, we discuss the non-trivial imprints left on the GW spectrum by a non-standard pre-BBN epoch. By considering an early matter-dominated era, we present an alternative detection avenue for annihilating and axionic DM. This approach offers a powerful new framework for searching for DM candidates that remains complementary to, and goes beyond, conventional laboratory searches.
Based on:
https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP12(2024)150, https://journals.aps.org/prd/abstract/10.1103/1zwb-24jr, and https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.17568 .