Constraints on Gravitino Decay and the Scale of Inflation using CMB spectral distortions

Abstract

If local supersymmetry is the correct extension of the standard model of particle physics, then following Inflation the early universe would have been populated by gravitinos produced from scatterings in the hot plasma during reheating. Their abundance is directly related to the magnitude of the reheating temperature. The gravitino lifetime is fixed as a function of its mass, and for gravitinos with lifetimes longer than the age of the universe at redshift $z\simeq 2\times 10^6$ (or roughly $6\times 10^6\mathrm{s}$), decay products can produce spectral distortion of the cosmic microwave background. Currently available COBE/FIRAS limits on spectral distortion can, in certain cases, already be competitive with respect to cosmological constraints from primordial nucleosynthesis for some gravitino decay scenarios. We show how the sensitivity limits on $\mu$ and $y$ distortions that can be reached with current technology would improve constraints and possibly rule out a significant portion of the parameter space for gravitino masses and Inflation reheating temperatures.

submitted to Phys. Rev D., 8 pages, 4 figs (1 new figure added, references updated)

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Cited by in corpus (17)

• Revisiting Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis Constraints on Long-Lived Decaying Particles
• Which spectral distortions does $\Lambda$CDM actually predict?
• Spectral distortion constraints on photon injection from low-mass decaying particles
• Thermalization of large energy release in the early Universe
• Microwave Spectro-Polarimetry of Matter and Radiation across Space and Time
• Big-bang nucleosynthesis with sub-GeV massive decaying particles
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• Constraining Curvatonic Reheating
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• Irreducible cosmological backgrounds of a real scalar with a broken symmetry
• Testing kinetically coupled inflation models with CMB distortions
• The decisive future of inflation
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