Journal of High Energy Physics (Jun 2025)
A model for inflaton induced baryogenesis and its phenomenological consequences
Abstract
Abstract In this study, we introduce a novel approach aimed at addressing the longstanding baryon-anti-baryon asymmetry conundrum. Our proposed mechanism suggests that baryon numbers were generated during the inflationary epoch through the dynamics of the inflaton field coupled with an explicit baryon number violating interaction. Notably, during inflation, it is possible to halt the baryon number generation process via a symmetry restoration phase transition. We argue that prior to this phase transition, baryon numbers could be synthesized and preserved within classical field configurations. Subsequently, following the phase transition, these baryon numbers were liberated as particles. We show that the mechanism of baryon number production is associated with cosmological collider signals and gravitational wave (GW) signals, providing a framework to investigate the origins of the universe’s matter-antimatter asymmetry.
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