Instability in axion inflation with strong backreaction from gauge modes

TL;DR

This paper analytically investigates the stability of axion inflation models with strong gauge mode backreaction, revealing an instability characterized by oscillations in the inflaton velocity.

Contribution

It provides an analytical framework to understand the instability caused by gauge backreaction in axion inflation, complementing previous numerical findings.

Findings

Confirmed the presence of an instability with oscillating inflaton velocity

Demonstrated the strong backreaction leads to increasing amplitude oscillations

Validated numerical observations through analytical analysis

Abstract

We perform an analytical study of the stability of the background solution of the model in which an inflaton, through an axionic coupling to a $U(1)$ gauge field, causes an amplification of the gauge field modes that strongly backreact on its dynamics. To this goal, we study the evolution of the gauge field modes coupled to the inflaton zero mode, treating perturbatively the deviation of the inflaton velocity from its mean-field value. As long as the system is in the strong backreaction regime we find that the inflaton velocity performs oscillations of increasing amplitude about the value it would have in the approximation of constant velocity, confirming an instability that has been observed in numerical studies.