Dark radiation from inflationary fluctuations
Abstract
Light new vector bosons can be produced gravitationally through quantum fluctuations during inflation; if these particles are feebly coupled and cosmologically metastable, they can account for the observed dark matter abundance. However, in minimal anomaly-free U(1) extensions to the Standard Model, these vectors generically decay to neutrinos if at least one neutrino mass eigenstate is sufficiently light. If these decays occur between neutrino decoupling and cosmic microwave background (CMB) freeze-out, the resulting radiation energy density can contribute to ΔNeff at levels that can ameliorate the Hubble tension and be discovered with future CMB and relic neutrino detection experiments. Since the additional neutrinos are produced from vector decays after Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN), this scenario predicts ΔNeff>0 at recombination, but ΔNeff=0 during BBN. Furthermore, due to a fortuitous cancellation, the contribution to ΔNeff is approximately mass independent.
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1786258
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1637607
- Report Number(s):
- FERMILAB-PUB-20-229-A-T; arXiv:2006.13224
Journal ID: ISSN 2470-0010; PRVDAQ; 123507
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC02-07CH11359
- Resource Type:
- Published Article
- Journal Name:
- Physical Review D
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Name: Physical Review D Journal Volume: 103 Journal Issue: 12; Journal ID: ISSN 2470-0010
- Publisher:
- American Physical Society
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS; 72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS; Big bang nucleosynthesis; Cosmological parameters; Dark matter; Inflation
Citation Formats
Krnjaic, Gordan. Dark radiation from inflationary fluctuations. United States: N. p., 2021.
Web. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.103.123507.
Krnjaic, Gordan. Dark radiation from inflationary fluctuations. United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.103.123507
Krnjaic, Gordan. Fri .
"Dark radiation from inflationary fluctuations". United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.103.123507.
@article{osti_1786258,
title = {Dark radiation from inflationary fluctuations},
author = {Krnjaic, Gordan},
abstractNote = {Light new vector bosons can be produced gravitationally through quantum fluctuations during inflation; if these particles are feebly coupled and cosmologically metastable, they can account for the observed dark matter abundance. However, in minimal anomaly-free U(1) extensions to the Standard Model, these vectors generically decay to neutrinos if at least one neutrino mass eigenstate is sufficiently light. If these decays occur between neutrino decoupling and cosmic microwave background (CMB) freeze-out, the resulting radiation energy density can contribute to ΔNeff at levels that can ameliorate the Hubble tension and be discovered with future CMB and relic neutrino detection experiments. Since the additional neutrinos are produced from vector decays after Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN), this scenario predicts ΔNeff>0 at recombination, but ΔNeff=0 during BBN. Furthermore, due to a fortuitous cancellation, the contribution to ΔNeff is approximately mass independent.},
doi = {10.1103/PhysRevD.103.123507},
journal = {Physical Review D},
number = 12,
volume = 103,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Jun 04 00:00:00 EDT 2021},
month = {Fri Jun 04 00:00:00 EDT 2021}
}
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