Alladi Ramakrishnan Hall

Cosmological implications of inflaton-mediated dark and visible matter scatterings after reheating

Deep Ghosh

IISER Kolkata

In the absence of any direct non-gravitational interaction between the visible and dark matter (DM), the initial density of DM is produced from the decay of the inflation field during reheating, with an initial temperature different from the visible one. This scenario necessarily implies inflaton-mediated scatterings between both sectors, potentially modifying the temperature and density of DM after reheating. We show that for a broad range of inflaton mass, the DM temperature substantially changes even with very small couplings to the inflaton. We also discuss the CMB and BBN constraints on the light dark matter scenario in this context.