Fermion production during and after axion inflation
- Department of Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,Urbana, Illinois 61801 (United States)
We study derivatively coupled fermions in axion-driven inflation, specifically m{sub ϕ}{sup 2}ϕ{sup 2} and monodromy inflation, and calculate particle production during the inflationary epoch and the post-inflationary axion oscillations. During inflation, the rolling axion acts as an effective chemical potential for helicity which biases the gravitational production of one fermion helicity over the other. This mechanism allows for efficient gravitational production of heavy fermion states that would otherwise be highly suppressed. Following inflation, the axion oscillates and fermions with both helicities are produced as the effective frequency of the fermion field changes non-adiabatically. For certain values of the fermion mass and axion-fermion coupling strength, the two helicity states are produced asymmetrically, resulting in unequal number-densities of left- and right-helicity fermions.
- Sponsoring Organization:
- SCOAP3, CERN, Geneva (Switzerland)
- OSTI ID:
- 22458443
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Vol. 2015, Issue 11; Other Information: PUBLISHER-ID: JCAP11(2015)021; OAI: oai:repo.scoap3.org:12603; cc-by Article funded by SCOAP3. Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1475-7516
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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