Abstract We present a unified model where the same scalar field can drive inflation and account for the present dark matter abundance. This scenario is based on the incomplete decay of the inflaton field into right-handed neutrino pairs, which is accomplished by imposing a discrete interchange symmetry on the inflaton and on two of the right-handed neutrinos. We show that this...
Abstract We discuss the dynamics and phenomenology of an oscillating scalar field coupled to the Higgs boson that accounts for the dark matter in the Universe. The model assumes an underlying scale invariance such that the scalar field only acquires mass after the electroweak phase transition, behaving as dark radiation before the latter takes place. While for a positive coupling...
We suggest a structure for the vacuum comprised of a network of tightly knotted/linked flux tubes formed in a QCD-like cosmological phase transition and show that such a network can drive cosmological inflation. As the network can be topologically stable only in three space dimensions, this scenario provides a dynamical explanation for the existence of exactly three large spatial...