Lattice simulations of Abelian gauge fields coupled to axions during Inflation

Abstract

We use a lattice simulation to study a model of axion inflation where the inflaton is coupled to a U(1) gauge field through Chern-Simons interaction. These kinds of models have already been studied with a lattice simulation in the context of reheating. In this work, we focus on the deep inflationary phase and discuss the new aspects that need to be considered in order to simulate gauge fields in this regime. Our main result is reproducing with precision the growth of the gauge field on the lattice induced by the rolling of the axion on its potential, thus recovering the results of linear perturbation theory for this model. In order to do so, we study in detail how the spatial discretization, through the choice of the spatial derivatives on the lattice, influences the dynamics of the gauge field. We find that the evolution of the gauge field is highly sensitive to the choice of the spatial discretization scheme. Nevertheless, we are able to identify a discretization scheme for which the growth of the gauge field on the lattice reproduces the one of continuous space with good precision.

13 pages, 8 figures; typos corrected, added references, slight modifications to the text; various changes matching the version published in PRD

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• Cosmological Correlators Through the Looking Glass: Reality, Parity, and Factorisation
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• Wash-in leptogenesis after axion inflation
• LiteBIRD Science Goals and Forecasts. A Case Study of the Origin of Primordial Gravitational Waves using Large-Scale CMB Polarization
• Unveiling the nonlinear dynamics of a rolling axion during inflation
• The non-linear dynamics of axion inflation: a detailed lattice study
• STOLAS: STOchastic LAttice Simulation of cosmic inflation
• Parity-violating scalar trispectrum from a rolling axion during inflation
• On the Schwinger effect during axion inflation
• Ultra-Slow-Roll Inflation on the Lattice II: Nonperturbative Curvature Perturbation
• On Sphaleron Heating in the Presence of Fermions
• Primordial Power Spectrum and Bispectrum from Lattice Simulations of Axion-U(1) Inflation
• Gravitational waves from axion inflation in the gradient expansion formalism. Part I. Pure axion inflation
• Photon propagator for inflation in the general covariant gauge
• On the prospects of thermalization of axion-SU(2) inflation
• The Stochastic Schwinger Effect
• Gravitational Waves from Gauge Quanta Produced during Inflation