Runaway Gravitational Production of Dark Photons

Journal Article · 08 August 2024 · Physical Review Letters

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.133.061602 · OSTI ID:2429082

Capanelli, Christian  ^[1]; Jenks, Leah  ^[2]; Kolb, Edward W.  ^[2]; McDonough, Evan  ^[3]

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1. McGill University, Quebec (Canada)
2. University of Chicago, IL (United States)
3. University of Winnipeg, Manitoba (Canada)

We demonstrate that gravitational particle production of a massive, Abelian, vector (Proca) field during inflation in the presence of nonminimal coupling to gravity may suffer from an instability which leads to runaway production of high-momentum modes. This is untenable unless there is some mechanism to regulate the runaway. We discuss the parameter space of the particle mass and nonminimal couplings where such a runaway occurs and possible ways to tame the runaway. We find that there is no obvious way to resolve the runaway in a UV completion or with kinetic mixing to the standard model.

• Research Organization: University of Chicago, IL (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE; USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)
• Grant/Contract Number: SC0009924
• OSTI ID: 2429082
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Journal Name: Physical Review Letters Journal Issue: 6 Vol. 133; ISSN 0031-9007
• Publisher: American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English