Abstract.
Within the framework of an explicit dynamical model, in which we calculate the radiatively-corrected, tree-level potential that sets up inflation, we show that the inflaton can be a significant part of dark matter today. We exhibit potentials with both a maximum and a minimum. Using the calculated position of the potential minimum, and an estimate for fluctuations of the inflaton field in the early universe, we calculate a contribution to the matter energy density of \((1-2)\times 10^{-47}{\rm GeV}^4\) in the present universe, from cold inflatons with mass of about \(6\times 10^9 {\rm GeV}\). We show that the inflaton might decay in a specific way, and we calculate a possible lifetime that is several orders of magnitude greater than the present age of the universe. Inflaton decay is related to an interaction which, together with a spontaneous breakdown of CP invariance at a cosmological energy scale, can give rise to a neutrino-antineutrino asymmetry just prior to the time of electroweak symmetry breaking.
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Received: 26 November 1997 / Revised version: 8 December 1997 / Published online: 24 March 1998
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Barshay, S., Kreyerhoff, G. The inflaton as dark matter. Eur. Phys. J. C 5, 369–376 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1007/s100529800842
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s100529800842