Related papers: Dark Fermions and Spontaneous $CP$ violation in $S…
$SU(2)$ gauge fields and axions can have a stable, isotropic and homogeneous configuration during inflation. However, couplings to other matter species lead to particle production, which in turn induces backreaction on and destabilization…
We study the production and backreaction of massive vector-like fermions in the background of a classical SU(2) gauge field during axion-driven inflation. We demonstrate all ultraviolet divergences due to the interactions with the fermions…
After revisiting the heterotic string-derived low-energy effective model of \cite{Ashfaque:2016ydg, Athanasopoulos:2014bba, Faraggi:2016xnm, Ashfaque:2016jha} constructed in the four-dimensional free fermionic formulation, we find two…
Axion inflation models coupled to a gauge sector via a Chern-Simons term exhibit an array of interesting phenomenology including a chiral gravitational wave spectrum and primordial black hole production. They may also provide a useful…
We derive a one-loop effective description of axion inflation by integrating out a heavy Dirac fermion with an inflaton-dependent complex mass undergoing a smooth localized threshold transition. The threshold induces correlated corrections…
Previous studies demonstrate that the inflaton, when coupled to the hypercharge Chern-Simons density, can source an explosive production of helical hypermagnetic fields. Then, in the absence of fermion production, those fields have the…
Axion inflation entails a coupling of the inflaton field to gauge fields through the Chern-Simons term. This results in a strong gauge field production during inflation, which backreacts on the inflaton equation of motion. Here we show that…
We present an intrinsic leptogenesis mechanism in models of axion inflation with a classical SU(2) gauge field. The gauge field is coupled to the axion with a Chern-Simons interaction and comprises a tiny fraction of the total energy,…
We investigate a non-supersymmetric $SO(10)\times U(1)_{\rm PQ}$ axion model in which the spontaneous breaking of $U(1)_{\rm PQ}$ occurs after inflation, and the axion domain wall problem is resolved by employing the Lazarides-Shafi…
Particle production in strong electromagnetic fields is a recurring theme in solid state physics, heavy ion collisions, early universe cosmology and formal quantum field theory. In this paper we discuss the Dirac equation in a background of…
We propose a minimal setup that realises dynamical inflection point inflation, and, using the same field content, generates neutrino masses, a baryon asymmetry of the universe, and dark matter. A dark $SU(2)_D$ gauge sector with a dark…
We present a new mechanism to generate a coherently oscillating dark vector field from axion-SU(2) gauge field dynamics during inflation. The SU(2) gauge field acquires a nonzero background sourced by an axion during inflation, and it…
In axion gauge field inflation an axion-like particle driving cosmic inflation is coupled to the Chern-Simons density of an Abelian or non-Abelian gauge group. In the case of a non-Abelian gauge group, this can lead to the formation of a…
We implement the scenario of early relaxation of the axion via a high scale confinement within $SU(5)$ grand unified theory and study an epoch of strong QCD in inflationary cosmology. We consider scenarios in which, during inflation, the…
Supersymmetric theories with a $U(1)_R$ symmetry have Dirac gauginos, solve the supersymmetric flavor and CP problems, and have distinctive collider signatures. However when supergravity is included, the $U(1)_R$ must be broken, adding…
Axion inflation represents an intriguing source of gravitational waves (GWs) from the early Universe. In a companion paper, arXiv:2508.00798, we previously leveraged the gradient expansion formalism (GEF) to investigate pure axion inflation…
Upon embedding the axion-inflation in the minimal left-right symmetric gauge extension of the SM with gauge group $SU(2)_L\times SU(2)_R \times U(1)_{B-L}$, [arXiv:2012.11516] proposed a new particle physics model for inflation. In this…
Axion-like particles with a coupling to non-Abelian gauge fields at finite temperature can experience dissipation due to sphaleron heating. This could play an important role for warm inflation or dynamical dark energy. We investigate to…
The stable hadronic bound states in a hidden new non-Abelian gauge sector provide interesting candidates for strongly-interacting Dark Matter (DM). A particular example are theories in which DM is made up of dark pions which set the DM…
A new understanding of the stability of self-interacting dark matter is pointed out, based on the simplest spontaneously broken Abelian $U(1)$ gauge model with one complex scalar and one Dirac fermion. The key is the imposition of dark…