Instability in axion inflation with strong backreaction from gauge modes [CEA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2209.08131


We perform an analytical study of the stability of the background solution of the model in which an inflaton, through an axionic coupling to a $U(1)$ gauge field, causes an amplification of the gauge field modes that strongly backreact on its dynamics. To this goal, we study the evolution of the gauge field modes coupled to the inflaton zero mode, treating perturbatively the deviation of the inflaton velocity from its mean-field value. As long as the system is in the strong backreaction regime we find that the inflaton velocity performs oscillations of increasing amplitude about the value it would have in mean field approximation, confirming an instability that has been observed in numerical studies.

Read this paper on arXiv…

M. Peloso and L. Sorbo
Tue, 20 Sep 22
14/81

Comments: 14 pages, 7 figures