Skip to content
DraconiticResearch
Search Sources API
179,152 studies31 sourcesUpdated 11 min ago
PreprintarXiv licencearXiv

Axion Inflation: Perturbative control in the strong backreaction regime

  • Valerie Domcke
  • Alexandros Papageorgiou
  • Marco Peloso
  • Stefan Sandner
Open at sourcePDFDOICite

Abstract

We study the strong backreaction regime in axion inflation, in which the friction from Abelian gauge fields generated via the pseudo-scalar interaction β/(4 Mp) ϕF F̃ is comparable to Hubble friction. The non-linear dynamics associated with the gauge fields render this regime phenomenologically particularly interesting, but also notoriously difficult to study with perturbative methods. Quantifying the perturbative control through the direct impact on the spectral backreaction using (i) a first-order gradient-expansion formalism including axion gradients, and (ii) a one-loop in-in calculation, we discover an extended mild backreaction regime at large couplings β, with a relatively large, nearly constant particle production parameter ξ. In passing, we point out that CMB non-Gaussianity bounds impose a general upper limit on the product of axion gauge field coupling and Hubble parameter during inflation, βH/Mp < 1.4· 10−3, independently of the choice of the axion potential.

Related

  1. The onset of the strong backreaction regime in axion inflation, an analytical study
    Aditya Kulkarni, Lorenzo Sorbo
    arXivPreprintarXiv licenceFull textCosmologyHigh-energy & particle physicsarXiv
  2. Mean-Field Backreaction in Single-Field Inflation
    Matteo Braglia, Gabriele Franciolini, Nadir Ijaz +1
    arXivPreprintarXiv licenceFull textCosmologyGravitation & general relativityarXiv
  3. Gauge Backreaction in Standard Model Warm Inflation
    Rafid H. Dejrah, Anish Ghoshal
    arXivPreprintarXiv licenceFull textCosmologyHigh-energy & particle physicsarXiv
  4. Perturbative Kähler Moduli Inflation
    Mishaal Hai, Ahmed Rakin Kamal, Noshin Ferdous Shamma +1
    International Journal of Modern Physics DPeer-reviewedLicence not statedFull text17 citedCosmologyOpenAlex
  5. Ultra-slow-roll Inflation with Non-perturbative Non-Gaussianity and Scalar Induced Gravitational Waves
    Manuel Drees, Chenhuan Wang
    arXivPreprintCC BY 4.0Full textCosmologyHigh-energy & particle physicsarXiv

Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@misc{domcke2026axion,
  title = {{Axion Inflation: Perturbative control in the strong backreaction regime}},
  author = {Valerie Domcke and Alexandros Papageorgiou and Marco Peloso and Stefan Sandner},
  howpublished = {arXiv},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2608.02498},
  eprint = {2608.02498},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.02498},
}
RIS
TY  - UNPB
TI  - Axion Inflation: Perturbative control in the strong backreaction regime
AU  - Valerie Domcke
AU  - Alexandros Papageorgiou
AU  - Marco Peloso
AU  - Stefan Sandner
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/26
PB  - arXiv
DO  - 10.48550/arxiv.2608.02498
UR  - https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.02498
AB  - We study the strong backreaction regime in axion inflation, in which the friction from Abelian gauge fields generated via the pseudo-scalar interaction β/(4 M_p) ϕF F̃ is comparable to Hubble friction. The non-linear dynamics associated with the gauge fields render this regime phenomenologically particularly interesting, but also notoriously difficult to study with perturbative methods. Quantifying the perturbative control through the direct impact on the spectral backreaction using (i) a first-order gradient-expansion formalism including axion gradients, and (ii) a one-loop in-in calculation, we discover an extended mild backreaction regime at large couplings β, with a relatively large, nearly constant particle production parameter ξ. In passing, we point out that CMB non-Gaussianity bounds impose a general upper limit on the product of axion gauge field coupling and Hubble parameter during inflation, βH/M_p < 1.4· 10^−3, independently of the choice of the axion potential.
ER  -