Gravitational production of heavy particles during and after inflation

Abstract

We investigate the gravitational production of a scalar field χ with a mass exceeding the Hubble scale during inflation m_χ ≳ H_I, employing both analytical and numerical approaches. We demonstrate that the steepest descent method effectively captures the epochs and yields of gravitational production in a compact and simple analytical framework. These analytical results align with the numerical solutions of the field equation. Our study covers three spacetime backgrounds: de Sitter, power-law inflation, and the Starobinsky inflation model. Within these models, we identify two distinct phases of particle production: during and after inflation. During inflation, we derive an accurate analytic expression for the particle production rate, accounting for a varying Hubble rate. After inflation, the additional burst of particle production depends on the inflaton mass around its minimum. When this mass is smaller than the Hubble scale during inflation, H_I, there is no significant extra production. However, if the inflaton mass is larger, post-inflation production becomes the dominant contribution. Furthermore, we explore the implications of gravitationally produced heavy fields for dark matter abundance, assuming their cosmological stability.