Unification of inflation, dark energy, and dark matter within the Salam-Sezgin cosmological model

Abstract

We investigate a cosmological model, based on the Salam-Sezgin six-dimensional supergravity theory and on previous work by Anchordoqui, Goldberg, Nawata, and Nu\~nez. Assuming a period of warm inflation, we show that it is possible to extend the evolution of the model back in time, to include the inflationary period, thus unifying inflation, dark matter, and dark energy within a single framework. Like the previous authors, we were not able to obtain the full dark matter content of the universe from the Salam-Sezgin scalar fields. However, even if only partially successful, this work shows that present-day theories, based on superstrings and supergravity, may eventually lead to a comprehensive modeling of the evolution of the universe. We find that the gravitational-wave spectrum of the model has a nonconstant negative slope in the frequency range $({10}^{\ensuremath{-}15}--{10}^{6})\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{rad}/\mathrm{s}$, and that, unlike standard (cold) inflation models, it shows no structure in the $\mathrm{MHz}/\mathrm{GHz}$ range of frequencies.