Graviton- and Inflaton-mediated Dark Matter Production after Large Field Polynomial Inflation

Abstract

Polynomial inflation is a simple cosmological scenario, which fits the cosmic microwave background data well. It provides testable predictions for the tensor-to-scalar ratio and the running of the spectral index. In this work, we investigate the production of Dirac dark matter (DM) within the framework of large-field polynomial inflation. We study all relevant production channels including $i$) non-thermal production through inflaton decays and scatterings, and $ii$) thermal production from scattering of standard model particles mediated by inflatons and gravitons. In contrast to small-field polynomial inflation, where inflaton decay dominates DM production, we find that graviton-mediated processes can be dominant in the large-field scenario. For DM lighter than the inflaton, we demonstrate that the interplay between graviton- and inflaton-mediated production channels give rise to non-trivial relations between the DM mass and the reheating temperature required to account for the DM relic abundance.

Comments: v1: 22 pages, 6 figures; v2: version accepted for publication in PRD