Instability in axion inflation with strong backreaction from gauge modes

Abstract

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 the approximation of constant velocity, confirming an instability that has been observed in numerical studies.

arXiv comment14 pages, 7 figures; v2: minor stylistic changes, references added

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Cited by in corpus (23)

• Inflation and Primordial Black Holes
• The Open Effective Field Theory of Inflation
• Axion inflation in the strong-backreaction regime: decay of the Anber-Sorbo solution
• Backreaction from gauge fields produced during inflation
• Parity violating gravitational waves at the end of inflation
• Backreaction of axion-SU(2) dynamics during inflation
• Scalar perturbations from inflation in the presence of gauge fields
• Unveiling the nonlinear dynamics of a rolling axion during inflation
• The non-linear dynamics of axion inflation: a detailed lattice study
• In-in formalism for the entropy of quantum fields in curved spacetimes
• Gauge preheating with full general relativity
• Lattice simulations of axion-U(1) inflation: gravitational waves, magnetic fields, and scalar statistics
• On the Schwinger effect during axion inflation
• Inflation from Multiple Pseudo-Scalar Fields: PBH Dark Matter and Gravitational Waves
• On Sphaleron Heating in the Presence of Fermions
• Magnetogenesis from axion-SU(2) inflation
• Primordial Power Spectrum and Bispectrum from Lattice Simulations of Axion-U(1) Inflation
• Strong backreaction of gauge quanta produced during inflation
• Gravitational waves from axion inflation in the gradient expansion formalism. Part I. Pure axion inflation
• On the prospects of thermalization of axion-SU(2) inflation
• Perturbative limits on axion-SU(2) gauge dynamics during inflation from the energy density of spin-2 particles
• Gravitational Waves from a Gauge Field Non-minimally Coupled to Gravity
• Revisiting the Chern-Simons interaction during inflation with a non-canonical pseudo-scalar