Inflation-Dark Matter unified through Quantum Generation

TL;DR

This paper proposes a novel unification of inflation and dark matter through a single scalar field, utilizing quantum generation to avoid fine tuning and achieve natural transition between cosmological phases.

Contribution

It introduces a quantum generation mechanism for the scalar field that unifies inflation and dark matter without additional parameters or fine tuning.

Findings

Quantum generation enables natural transition from inflation to dark matter.

Unification achieved with only three parameters, same as separate models.

No fine tuning required for the energy density of the scalar field.

Abstract

We unify inflation and dark matter via a single scalar field phi. One of the main difficulties for this unification is that between inflation and dark matter one needs a successful reheating process and a long lasting period of radiation. Therefore the amount of energy density in the inflaton-dark matter field phi must be fine tune after reheating to give dark matter. Here we show an alternative scheme in which the inflaton decays completely, disappearing entirely from the spectrum. However, at low energies, before matter-radiation equality, the same interaction term that leads to the inflaton decay, regenerates phi. An essential feature is that the transition between the intermediate radiation dominated to the dark matter phase is related to a quantum generation of the scalar field \phi instead to purely classical dynamics. Thanks to this quantum transition the inflation-dark matter unification can take place naturally without fine tuning. The unification scheme presented here has three parameters, the mass of the dark matter particle m_o, the inflation parameter lambda and the coupling g for the inflaton interaction. Phenomenology fixes the value for lambda and gives a constraint between g and m_o, leaving only the mass of the dark matter particle m_o as a free parameter. These same three parameters lambda, m_o, g are present in models with inflation and a dark matter wimp particle but without unification. Therefore our unification scheme does not increase the number of parameters and it accomplishes the desired unification between inflaton and dark matter for free.