Despicable dark relics: generated by gravity with unconstrained masses

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Published 3 April 2019 © 2019 IOP Publishing Ltd and Sissa Medialab
, , Citation Malcolm Fairbairn et al JCAP04(2019)005 DOI 10.1088/1475-7516/2019/04/005

1475-7516/2019/04/005

Abstract

We demonstrate the existence of a generic, efficient and purely gravitational channel producing a significant abundance of dark relics during reheating after the end of inflation. The mechanism is present for any inert scalar with the non-minimal curvature coupling ξ Rχ2 and the relic production is efficient for modest values ξ = Script O(1). The observed dark matter abundance can be reached for a broad range of relic masses extending from m ∼ 1 k eV to m ∼ 108 GeV, depending on the scale of inflation and the dark sector couplings. Frustratingly, such relics escape direct, indirect and collider searches since no non-gravitational couplings to visible matter are needed.

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10.1088/1475-7516/2019/04/005