BBN photodisintegration constraints on gravitationally produced vector bosons
Abstract Gravitational production of massive particles due to cosmic expansion can be significant during the inflationary and reheating period of the Universe. If the particle also has non-gravitational interactions that do not significantly affect its production, numerous observational probes open...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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SpringerOpen
2022-11-01
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| Series: | Journal of High Energy Physics |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP11(2022)067 |
| _version_ | 1797865658664353792 |
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| author | Chee Sheng Fong Moinul Hossain Rahat Shaikh Saad |
| author_facet | Chee Sheng Fong Moinul Hossain Rahat Shaikh Saad |
| author_sort | Chee Sheng Fong |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Gravitational production of massive particles due to cosmic expansion can be significant during the inflationary and reheating period of the Universe. If the particle also has non-gravitational interactions that do not significantly affect its production, numerous observational probes open up, including cosmological probes. In this work, we focus on the gravitational production of light vector bosons that couple feebly to the Standard Model (SM) particles. Due to the very feeble coupling, the light vector bosons never reach thermal equilibrium, and if the Hubble scale at the end of inflation is above 108 GeV, the gravitational production can overwhelm the thermal production via the freeze-in mechanism by many orders of magnitude. As a result, much stronger constraints from the Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) can be placed on the lifetime and mass of the vector bosons compared to the scenario where only thermal production is considered. As an example, we study the sub-GeV scale dark photons, which couple to the SM only through kinetic mixing, and derive constraints on the mass and kinetic mixing parameter of the dark photon from the photodisintegration effects on the light element abundances relevant at the end of the BBN when the cosmic age was around 104 s. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-09T23:12:49Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-2b68ac0840dc457a98a96318632deeec |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1029-8479 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-09T23:12:49Z |
| publishDate | 2022-11-01 |
| publisher | SpringerOpen |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of High Energy Physics |
| spelling | doaj.art-2b68ac0840dc457a98a96318632deeec2023-03-22T10:16:51ZengSpringerOpenJournal of High Energy Physics1029-84792022-11-0120221113310.1007/JHEP11(2022)067BBN photodisintegration constraints on gravitationally produced vector bosonsChee Sheng Fong0Moinul Hossain Rahat1Shaikh Saad2Centro de Ciências Naturais e Humanas, Universidade Federal do ABCInstitute for Fundamental Theory, Department of Physics, University of FloridaDepartment of Physics, University of BaselAbstract Gravitational production of massive particles due to cosmic expansion can be significant during the inflationary and reheating period of the Universe. If the particle also has non-gravitational interactions that do not significantly affect its production, numerous observational probes open up, including cosmological probes. In this work, we focus on the gravitational production of light vector bosons that couple feebly to the Standard Model (SM) particles. Due to the very feeble coupling, the light vector bosons never reach thermal equilibrium, and if the Hubble scale at the end of inflation is above 108 GeV, the gravitational production can overwhelm the thermal production via the freeze-in mechanism by many orders of magnitude. As a result, much stronger constraints from the Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) can be placed on the lifetime and mass of the vector bosons compared to the scenario where only thermal production is considered. As an example, we study the sub-GeV scale dark photons, which couple to the SM only through kinetic mixing, and derive constraints on the mass and kinetic mixing parameter of the dark photon from the photodisintegration effects on the light element abundances relevant at the end of the BBN when the cosmic age was around 104 s.https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP11(2022)067Cosmology of Theories BSMEarly Universe Particle Physics |
| spellingShingle | Chee Sheng Fong Moinul Hossain Rahat Shaikh Saad BBN photodisintegration constraints on gravitationally produced vector bosons Journal of High Energy Physics Cosmology of Theories BSM Early Universe Particle Physics |
| title | BBN photodisintegration constraints on gravitationally produced vector bosons |
| title_full | BBN photodisintegration constraints on gravitationally produced vector bosons |
| title_fullStr | BBN photodisintegration constraints on gravitationally produced vector bosons |
| title_full_unstemmed | BBN photodisintegration constraints on gravitationally produced vector bosons |
| title_short | BBN photodisintegration constraints on gravitationally produced vector bosons |
| title_sort | bbn photodisintegration constraints on gravitationally produced vector bosons |
| topic | Cosmology of Theories BSM Early Universe Particle Physics |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP11(2022)067 |
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