Gravitino Abundance Research Articles

Ripples in spacetime from broken supersymmetry

We initiate the study of gravitational wave (GW) signals from first-order phase transitions in supersymmetry-breaking hidden sectors. Such phase transitions often occur along a pseudo-flat direction universally related to supersymmetry (SUSY) breaking in hidden sectors that spontaneously break R-symmetry. The potential along this pseudo-flat direction imbues the phase transition with a number of novel properties, including a nucleation temperature well below the scale of heavy states (such that the temperature dependence is captured by the low-temperature expansion) and significant friction induced by the same heavy states as they pass through bubble walls. In low-energy SUSY-breaking hidden sectors, the frequency of the GW signal arising from such a phase transition is guaranteed to lie within the reach of future interferometers given existing cosmological constraints on the gravitino abundance. Once a mediation scheme is specified, the frequency of the GW peak correlates with the superpartner spectrum. Current bounds on supersymmetry are compatible with GW signals at future interferometers, while the observation of a GW signal from a SUSY-breaking hidden sector would imply superpartners within reach of future colliders.

The gravitino problem in extended gravity cosmologies

The gravitino problem is investigated in the framework of extended gravity cosmologies. In particular, we consider f(R) gravity, the most natural extension of the Hilbert–Einstein action, and f({mathcal{T}}) gravity, the extension of teleparallel equivalent gravity. Since in these theories, the expansion laws of the Universe are modified, as compared to the standard Lambda CDM cosmology, it follows that also the thermal history of particles gets modified. We show that f(R) models allow to avoid the late abundance of gravitinos. In particular, we found that for an appropriate choice of the parameters characterizing the f(R) model, the gravitino abundance turns out to be independent of the reheating temperature. A similar behavior is achieved also in the context of f({mathcal{T}}) gravity. In this perspective, we can conclude that geometric corrections to standard General Relativity (and to Teleparallel Equivalent of General Relativity) can improve shortcomings both in cosmology and in unified theories beyond the standard model of particles.

Reheating from F-term inflation on brane and gravitino abundance

The braneworld Randall Sundrum II (RSII) model has been introduced to solve the problem related to the inflation standard scenario. The RSII model is based on a modification in the Friedmann equation by addition of the fifth dimension, which corresponds to energy, called the brane tension $\lambda$. After the inflation end, and when the universe enters in the reheating epoch, the effect of this energy $\lambda$ continues. In this context, we use the F-term model due to a simple superpotential with different forms of the Kahler potential to investigate the brane tension influence on the reheating temperature value $ T_{\rm rh}$. Consequently, we found a large value of $ T_{\rm rh}$, which varies in the range $(1-17) \times 10^{14}$ GeV. Also, we have shown that the variation of temperature value $ T_{{\rm rh}}$ depends on the brane tension and on the inflationary potential. Moreover in the F-term with the linear Kahler potential, the inflaton has a nonzero vacuum expectation value. At the end of inflation, this leads to an overproduction of gravitino which causes the destruction of the successful predictions of nucleosynthesis. In this context, we have shown that the increase in temperature is accompanied by the decrease in gravitino abundance. Therefore the solution of the gravitino overproduction.

Gravitino production in a thermal Universe revisited

We study the production of spin 1/2 gravitinos in a thermal Universe. Taking into account supersymmetry breaking due to the finite thermal energy density of the Universe, there is a large enhancement in the cross section of production of these gravitino states. We consider gravitinos with zero temperature masses of 0.1 eV, 1 keV, 100 GeV and 30 TeV as representative of gauge mediated, gravity mediated and anomaly mediated supersymmetry breaking scenarios. We find that the abundance of gravitinos produced in the early Universe is very high for gravitinos of mass 1 keV and 100 GeV. The gravitino abundances can be sufficiently suppressed if the reheat temperature is less than 100 GeV and 4×104GeV respectively. However such low reheat temperatures will rule out many models of baryogenesis including those via leptogenesis.

Cosmology with bulk viscosity and the gravitino problem

The gravitino problem is revisited in the framework of cosmological models in which the primordial cosmic matter is described by a relativistic imperfect fluid. Dissipative effects (or bulk viscosity effects) arise owing to the different cooling rates of the fluid components. We show that the effects of the bulk viscosity allow one to avoid the late abundance of gravitinos. In particular, for particular values of the parameters characterizing the cosmological model, the gravitino abundance turns out to be weakly depending on the reheating temperature.

Revisiting gravitino dark matter in thermal leptogenesis

In this paper, we revisit the gravitino dark matter scenario in the presence of the bilinear R-parity violating interaction. In particular, we discuss a consistency with the thermal leptogenesis. For a high reheating temperature required for the thermal leptogenesis, the gravitino dark matter tends to be overproduced, which puts a severe upper limit on the gluino mass. As we will show, a large portion of parameter space of the gravitino dark matter scenario has been excluded by combining the constraints from the gravitino abundance and the null results of the searches for the superparticles at the LHC experiments. In particular, the models with the stau (and other charged slepton) NLSP has been almost excluded by the searches for the long-lived charged particles at the LHC unless the required reheating temperature is somewhat lowered by assuming, for example, a degenerated right-handed neutrino mass spectrum.

Nonthermal gravitino production after large field inflation

We revisit the nonthermal gravitino production at the (p)reheating stage after inflation. Particular attention is paid to large field inflation models with a $\mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetry, for which the previous perturbative analysis is inapplicable; and inflation models with a stabilizer superfield, which have not been studied non-perturbatively. It is found that in single-superfield inflation models (without the stabilizer field), nonthermal production of the transverse gravitino can be cosmologically problematic while the abundance of the longitudinal gravitino is small enough. In multi-superfield inflation models (with the stabilizer field), production of the transverse and longitudinal gravitinos is significantly suppressed, and they are cosmologically harmless. We also clarify the relation between the background field method used in the preheating context and the standard perturbative decay method to estimate the gravitino abundance.

Cosmological constraint on the light gravitino mass fromCMB lensing and cosmic shear

Light gravitinos of mass ≲ O (10) eV are of particular interest in cosmology, offering various baryogenesis scenarios without suffering from the cosmological gravitino problem. The gravitino may contribute considerably to the total matter content of the Universe and affect structure formation from early to present epochs. After the gravitinos decouple from other particles in the early Universe, they free-stream and consequently suppress density fluctuations of (sub-)galactic length scales. Observations of structure at the relevant length-scales can be used to infer or constrain the mass and the abundance of light gravitinos. We derive constraints on the light gravitino mass using the data of cosmic microwave background (CMB) lensing from Planck and of cosmic shear from the Canada France Hawaii Lensing Survey survey, combined with analyses of the primary CMB anisotropies and the signature of baryon acoustic oscillations in galaxy distributions. The obtained constraint on the gravitino mass is m3/2 < 4.7 eV (95 % C.L.), which is substantially tighter than the previous constraint from clustering analysis of Ly-α forests.

Post-inflationary gravitino production revisited

We revisit gravitino production following inflation. As a first step, we review the standard calculation of gravitino production in the thermal plasma formed at the end of post-inflationary reheating when the inflaton has completely decayed. Next we consider gravitino production prior to the completion of reheating, assuming that the inflaton decay products thermalize instantaneously while they are still dilute. We then argue that instantaneous thermalization is in general a good approximation, and also show that the contribution of non-thermal gravitino production via the collisions of inflaton decay products prior to thermalization is relatively small. Our final estimate of the gravitino-to-entropy ratio is approximated well by a standard calculation of gravitino production in the post-inflationary thermal plasma assuming total instantaneous decay and thermalization at a time t ≃ 1.2/Γϕ. Finally, in light of our calculations, we consider potential implications of upper limits on the gravitino abundance for models of inflation, with particular attention to scenarios for inflaton decays in supersymmetric Starobinsky-like models.

Suppressing gravitino thermal production with a temperature-dependent messenger coupling

We show that the constraints on GMSB theories from the gravitino cosmology can be significantly relaxed if the messenger-spurion coupling is temperature dependent. We demonstrate this novel mechanism in a scenario in which this coupling depends on the VEV of an extra singlet field $S$ that interacts with the thermalized plasma which can result in a significantly suppressed gravitino production rate. In such a scenario the relic gravitino abundance is determined by the thermal dynamics of the $S$ field and it is easy to fit the observed dark matter abundance evading the stringent constraints on the reheating temperature, thus making gravitino dark matter consistent with thermal leptogenesis.

Reheating processes after Starobinsky inflation in old-minimal supergravity

We study reheating processes and its cosmological consequences in the Starobinsky model embedded in the old-minimal supergravity. First, we consider minimal coupling between the gravity and matter sectors in the higher curvature theory, and transform it to the equivalent standard supergravity coupled to additional matter superfields. We then discuss characteristic decay modes of the inflaton and the reheating temperature $T_{\rm R}$. Considering a simple model of supersymmetry breaking sector, we estimate gravitino abundance from inflaton decay, and obtain limits on the masses of gravitino and supersymmetry breaking field. We find $T_{\rm R}\simeq 1.0\times10^9$ GeV and the allowed range of gravitino mass as $10^4$ GeV $\lesssim m_{3/2} \lesssim 10^5$ GeV, assuming anomaly-induced decay into the gauge sector as the dominant decay channel.

Long-lived stop at the LHC with or without R-parity

We consider scenarios of gravitino LSP and DM with stop NLSP both within R-parity conserving and R-parity violating supersymmetry (RPC and RPV SUSY, respectively). We discuss cosmological bounds from Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) and the gravitino abundance and then concentrate on the signals of long-lived stops at the LHC as displaced vertices or metastable particles. Finally we discuss how to distinguish R-parity conserving and R-parity breaking stop decays if they happen within the detector and how to suppress SM backgrounds.

Supersymmetric flat directions and resonant gravitino production

We study resonant gravitino production in the early Universe in the presence of SUSY flat directions whose large vacuum expectation values (VEVs) break some but not all gauge symmetries. We find that for a large region of parameter space, the gravitino abundance is several orders of magnitude larger than the cosmological upper bound. Since flat directions with large VEVs are generically expected in supersymmetric theories, this result further exacerbates the gravitino problem.

Quantifying the reheating temperature of the universe

The aim of this paper is to determine an exact definition of the reheat temperature for a generic perturbative decay of the inflaton. In order to estimate the reheat temperature, there are two important conditions one needs to satisfy: (a) the decay products of the inflaton must dominate the energy density of the universe, i.e. the universe becomes completely radiation dominated, and (b) the decay products of the inflaton have attained local thermodynamical equilibrium. For some choices of parameters, the latter is a more stringent condition, such that the decay products may thermalise much after the beginning of radiation–domination. Consequently, we have obtained that the reheat temperature can be much lower than the standard-lore estimation. In this paper we describe under what conditions our universe could have efficient or inefficient thermalisation, and quantify the reheat temperature for both the scenarios. This result has an immediate impact on many applications which rely on the thermal history of the universe, in particular gravitino abundance.

Low Mass Gravitino: Re-Introducing the Superpartner as Dark Matter with Consideration to Inflation Due to Experimentation

Superparticles including gravitons appearing in the laboratory due to a novel technique (Tahan, 2011, 2012) meant that the gravitino exists, concluded to have a low mass consequently requiring this affirmative presentation. A low mass gravitino would not have been problematic related to Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) and baryogenesis if understanding a correlation between inflation and gravitino abundance (Ellis, Linde, & Nanopoulos, 1982), particularly when considering the particle to be dark matter and the lightest supersymmetric particle or superparticle (LSP). Gravitinos--proposed by this paper to be in the fifth dimension as dark matter--subsist because of inflation. This manuscript is a first discussion of the gravitino based on experimentation.

Kinetic and chemical equilibrium of the Universe and gravitino production

Flat directions in generic supersymmetric theories can change the thermal history of the Universe. A novel scenario was proposed earlier where the vacuum expectation value of the flat directions induces large masses for all the gauge bosons and gauginos. This delays the thermalization of the Universe after inflation and solves the gravitino problem. In this article we perform a detailed calculation of the above scenario. We include the appropriate initial state particle distribution functions, consider the conditions for the feasibility of the non-thermal scenario, and investigate phase space suppression of gravitino production in the context of heavy gauge bosons and gauginos in the final state. We find that the total gravitino abundance generated is consistent with cosmological constraints.

A gravitino-rich universe

The gravitino may well play an important role in cosmology, not only because its interactions are Planck-suppressed and therefore long-lived, but also because it is copiously produced via various processes such as particle scatterings in thermal plasma, and (pseudo) modulus and inflaton decays. We study a possibility that the early Universe was gravitino-rich from various aspects. In particular, a viable cosmology is possible, if high-scale supersymmetry is realized in nature as suggested by the recent discovery of the standard-model like Higgs boson of mass about 125-126 GeV. We find that the Universe can be even gravitino-dominated, in which case there will be an entropy dilution by the gravitino decay. If the gravitino abundance is proportional to the reheating temperature, both the maximal baryon asymmetry in leptogenesis and the dark matter from the gravitino decay become independent of the reheating temperature. The dark matter candidate is the Wino-like neutralino, whose mass is suppressed compared to the anomaly-mediation relation.

Gravitino cosmology in supersymmetric warm inflation

In supersymmetric models of warm inflation, the large temperature of the radiation bath produced by the dissipative motion of the inflaton field may induce a significant thermal abundance of potentially dangerous gravitinos. While previous discussions of this problem focused on gravitino production only at the end of warm inflation, similarly to conventional reheating scenarios, we study the full evolution of the gravitino abundance during and after inflation for simple monomial potentials, taking into account the enhanced gravitino and possibly gaugino masses due to supersymmetry breaking during inflation and the smooth transition into a radiation-dominated era. We find, on one hand, that the continuous thermal production increases the gravitino yield, although, on the other hand, ``freeze-out'' occurs at temperatures much lower than previously estimated. Moreover, for sufficiently strong dissipation, which allows for sub-Planckian inflaton values, the lower radiation temperature significantly alleviates and possibly solves the gravitino problem, with a baryon asymmetry being nevertheless produced through dissipative effects. Our analysis may also be relevant to standard reheating as an oscillating inflaton will also change the gravitino mass, potentially modifying the produced gravitino yield.

Gravitino freeze-in

We explore an alternative mechanism for the production of gravitino dark matter whereby relic gravitinos originate from the decays of superpartners which are still in thermal equilibrium, i.e. via freeze-in. Contributions to the gravitino abundance from freeze-in can easily dominate over those from thermal scattering over a broad range of parameter space, e.g., when the scalar superpartners are heavy. Because the relic abundance from freeze-in is independent of the reheating temperature after inflation, collider measurements may be used to unambiguously reconstruct the freeze-in origin of gravitinos. In particular, if gravitino freeze-in indeed accounts for the present day dark matter abundance, then the lifetime of the next-to-lightest superpartner is uniquely fixed by the superpartner spectrum.

Leptogenesis in Supersymmetric Economical 3-3-1 Model

We study a leptogenesis scenario in which the heavy Majorana neutrinos are produced non-thermally in inflaton decays in the supersymmetric economical \(\mathrm{SU}(3)_C\otimes \mathrm{SU}(3)_L \otimes \mathrm{U}(1)_X\) model with inflationary scenario. The lepton-number violating interactions among the inflaton and right-handed neutrinos appear at the one-loop level, and this is a reason for non-thermal leptogenesis scenario. The bound followed from the gravitino abundance and the cosmological constraint on neutrino mass/the neutrino oscillation data is: \(m_{\nu 3} \simeq \frac{0.05}{\delta_{eff}}\) eV. By taking the reheating temperature as low as \(T_R= 10^6\) GeV, we get a limit on the ratio of masses of the light heavies neutrino to those of the inflaton to be: \(\frac{M_{R1}}{M_{\phi}} = 0.87\).