Primordial SU(2) Gauge Fields, a New Window on Particle Cosmology

by Azadeh Maleknejad (Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics)

Wednesday 9 Oct 2019, 11:30 → 13:30 Europe/Zurich

4/2-011 - TH common room (CERN)

Primordial SU(2) gauge fields can contribute to the physics of inflation. In that class of models, the gauge field acquires a VEV, which is P and CP breaking and enriches the phenomenology of particles with spin. Their multifaceted phenomenology and unique observational features, e.g., chiral primordial gravitational waves and gravitational leptogenesis, turned this class of models to a hot topic of research in the past 9 years. In this talk, I will briefly review the different realizations of this setup. Next, I will tell you about the three different types of particles produced by the SU(2) gauge field, i.e., scalar, fermion, and spin-2 particles. The new spin-2 field produces chiral gravitational waves which can be detected with LiteBIRD, adv LISA, and BBO. Last but not least, I will tell you about the fermion generation during inflation, dark and visible, as yet another generous opportunity offered by the primordial SU(2)!