29 September 2015 to 2 October 2015
DESY Hamburg
Europe/Berlin timezone

Cosmic Inflation as a probe to Dark Matter properties

1 Oct 2015, 17:35
15m
Seminar room 2 (DESY Hamburg)

Seminar room 2

DESY Hamburg

Cosmology & Astroparticle Physics Cosmology & Astroparticle Physics

Speaker

Mr Tommi Tenkanen (University of Helsinki and Helsinki Institute of Physics)

Description

We show that dark matter abundance and the inflationary scale could be intimately related. Standard Model extensions with Higgs mediated couplings to new physics typically contain extra scalars whose excursions at the end of inflation can be very large. If their coupling to the Standard Model is weak, they will not thermalize and may easily constitute too much dark matter reminiscent to the moduli problem. As an example we consider Standard Model extended by real singlet scalar, and also by a singlet fermion. We discuss the field dynamics during inflation together with the post-inflationary dark matter production mechanisms and derive stringent constraints on viable mass scales and coupling values. The found connection between primordial tensor perturbations and observed dark matter abundance may therefore provide an interesting new probe on dark matter properties in the near future.

Primary author

Mr Tommi Tenkanen (University of Helsinki and Helsinki Institute of Physics)

Co-authors

Prof. Kimmo Kainulainen (University of Jyväskylä and Helsinki Institute of Physics) Dr Kimmo Tuominen (University of Helsinki and Helsinki Institute of Physics) Dr Sami Nurmi (University of Helsinki, University of Jyväskylä and Helsinki Institute of Physics) Mr Ville Vaskonen (University of Jyväskylä and Helsinki Institute of Physics)

Presentation materials