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...
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...
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...
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...
