Recrudescence of massive fermion production by oscillons

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that oscillons, a type of non-topological soliton, can efficiently produce heavy fermions during the post-inflationary preheating phase, extending the known fermion production mechanisms.

Contribution

It introduces the novel idea that oscillons can serve as effective sources for heavy fermion production, linking non-topological soliton dynamics with particle generation in the early universe.

Findings

Oscillons can produce heavy fermions efficiently.

Fermion production occurs at energy scales below the fermion mass scale.

The mechanism extends fermion production beyond homogeneous condensates.

Abstract

In this letter we bring together the physics of preheating, following a period of inflation, and the dynamics of non-topological solitons, namely oscillons. We show that the oscillating condensate that makes up an oscillon can be an efficient engine for producing heavy fermions, just as a homogeneous condensate is known for doing the same. This then allows heavy fermions to be produced when the energy scale of the Universe has dropped below the scale naturally associated to the fermions.