Hidden dark matter from Starobinsky inflation

• Main Authors: Qiang Li, Takeo Moroi, Kazunori Nakayama, Wen Yin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: SpringerOpen 2021-09-01
• Series: Journal of High Energy Physics
• Subjects: Beyond Standard Model; Cosmology of Theories beyond the SM
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP09(2021)179

Abstract The Starobinsky inflation model is one of the simplest inflation models that is consistent with the cosmic microwave background observations. In order to explain dark matter of the universe, we consider a minimal extension of the Starobinsky inflation model with introducing the dark sector which communicates with the visible sector only via the gravitational interaction. In Starobinsky inflation model, a sizable amount of dark-sector particle may be produced by the inflaton decay. Thus, a scalar, a fermion or a vector boson in the dark sector may become dark matter. We pay particular attention to the case with dark non-Abelian gauge interaction to make a dark glueball a dark matter candidate. In the minimal setup, we show that it is difficult to explain the observed dark matter abundance without conflicting observational constraints on the coldness and the self-interaction of dark matter. We propose scenarios in which the dark glueball, as well as other dark-sector particles, from the inflaton decay become viable dark matter candidates. We also discuss possibilities to test such scenarios.