# Sourcing Dark Matter and Dark Energy from $\alpha$-attractors

## TL;DR

This paper explores how $oldsymbol{ extalpha}$-attractors, originally developed for inflation, can also serve as models for dark matter and possibly dark energy, offering solutions to issues faced by traditional dark matter models.

## Contribution

It introduces $oldsymbol{ extalpha}$-dark matter, a novel dark matter candidate based on $oldsymbol{ extalpha}$-attractors, which addresses fine-tuning and small-scale structure problems.

## Key findings

- $oldsymbol{ extalpha}$DM shares features with fuzzy dark matter
- It has a large Jeans length resolving cusp-core issues
- It exhibits a tracker property for late-time convergence

## Abstract

Recently, Kallosh and Linde have drawn attention to a new family of superconformal inflationary potentials, subsequently called $\alpha$-attractors. The $\alpha$-attractor family can interpolate between a large class of inflationary models. It also has an important theoretical underpinning within the framework of supergravity. We demonstrate that the $\alpha$-attractors have an even wider appeal since they may describe dark matter and perhaps even dark energy. The dark matter associated with the $\alpha$-attractors, which we call $\alpha$-dark matter ($\alpha$DM), shares many of the attractive features of fuzzy dark matter, with $V(\varphi) = \frac{1}{2}m^2\varphi^2$, while having none of its drawbacks. Like fuzzy dark matter, $\alpha$DM can have a large Jeans length which could resolve the cusp-core and substructure problems faced by standard cold dark matter. $\alpha$DM also has an appealing tracker property which enables it to converge to the late-time dark matter asymptote, $\langle w\rangle \simeq 0$, from a wide range of initial conditions. It thus avoids the enormous fine-tuning problems faced by the $m^2\varphi^2$ potential in describing dark matter.