Phenomenology 2025 Symposium

Warm Inflation with the Standard Model

20 May 2025, 16:30

15m

David Lawrence Hall 209, University of Pittsburgh

New Ideas in Baryogenesis and Inflation New Ideas in Baryogenesis, Inflation

Speaker

Kim Berghaus (California Institute of Technology)

Description

We show for the first time that warm inflation is feasible with Standard Model (SM) gauge interactions alone. Our model consists of a minimal extension of the SM by a single scalar inflaton field with an axion-like coupling to gluons and a monomial potential. The effects of light fermions, which were previously argued to render warm inflation with the SM impossible, are alleviated by Hubble dilution of their chiral chemical potentials. Our model only features one adjustable combination of parameters and accommodates all inflationary observables. We briefly discuss implications for axion experiments, dark matter, and the strong CP-problem.