Workshop on Particle Production and Thermal Effects in Inflation

Session

Thermal Effects and Warm Inflation

7 Feb 2024, 10:00

Virtual @ King's College London

11. Thermalized Axion Inflation

Alessio Notari (Universitat de Barcelona)

07/02/2024, 10:00

I analyze the evolution of axion inflation, with gauge fields exponentially amplified by the inflaton velocity. I first review the resulting dynamics, that may lead to friction and oscillations in the inflaton trajectory. I discuss then the effects of interactions of the gauge fields: self-interactions, mediated by the axial coupling, or with Standard model fields. We show that scattering...

12. Towards understanding non-Abelian axion inflation

Mikko Sakari Laine (Universitaet Bern (CH))

07/02/2024, 10:50

An axion-like inflaton coupling to a non-Abelian gauge sector leads to a scenario which may involve fast thermalization, a computable friction coefficient, control over backreaction effects, and gravitational wave production in various frequency domains. The physics depends on the confinement scale of the non-Abelian sector, and can be either weakly or strongly coupled. We review the main...

13. Saving Warm Axion Inflation from Light Fermions

Dr Sebastian Zell (UC Louvain)

07/02/2024, 11:40

Axion-like particles with a coupling to non-Abelian gauge fields at finite temperature can experience dissipation due to sphaleron heating. This could play an important role for warm inflation or dynamical dark energy. We investigate to what degree the efficiency of this non-perturbative effect depends on the details of the underlying particle physics model. For a wide range of scenarios and...

14. Dark Matter production during Warm Inflation via Freeze-In

Gabriele Montefalcone

07/02/2024, 14:05

We present a novel perspective on the role of inflation in the production of Dark Matter (DM).
Specifically, we explore the DM production during Warm Inflation via ultraviolet Freeze-In (WIFI).
We demonstrate that in a Warm Inflation (WI) setting the persistent thermal bath, sustained by
the dissipative interactions with the inflaton field, can source a sizable DM abundance via the...

15. Warm inflation with sphaleron heating

Kim Berghaus (California Institute of Technology)

07/02/2024, 14:50

Coupling an axion to pure Yang-Mills gauge bosons is a compelling setup for warm inflationary dynamics. The axion, a pseudo-Goldstone boson acting as the warm inflaton is protected from thermal corrections to its mass due by its approximate shift symmetry. Simultaneously, real time sphaleron processes due to the non-trivial topology of the gauge theory fuel particle production, leading to the...

19. Future of Warm Inflation

Arjun Berera (Edinburgh U.)

07/02/2024, 15:40

This session will be a guided discussion led by Arjun Berera. He will start with a visionary talk and historical remarks on warm inflation. Following this, he will engage the audience by posing stimulating questions to stimulate further discussion.