Lattice simulations of axion-U(1) inflation: gravitational waves, magnetic fields, and scalar statistics

Abstract

We numerically study axion-U(1) inflation, focusing on the regime where the coupling between axions and gauge fields results in significant backreaction from the amplified gauge fields during inflation. These amplified gauge fields not only generate high-frequency gravitational waves (GWs), but also enhance spatial inhomogeneities in the axion field. GWs serve as key probe for constraining the coupling strength between the axion and gauge fields. We find that, when backreaction is important during inflation, the constraints on the coupling strength due to GW overproduction are relaxed compared to previous studies, in which backreaction matters only after inflation. Moreover, our results suggest that the probability density function (PDF) of axion fluctuations tends toward a Gaussian distribution even in cases where gauge field backreaction is important only after inflation. This aligns with previous studies where the same effect was observed for cases with strong backreaction during inflation. This finding can be crucial for future studies of primordial black hole (PBH) formation, which can further constrain the coupling strength. We also calculate the spectrum of the produced magnetic fields in this model and find that their strength is compatible with the observed lower limits.

33 pages, 13 figures, Accepted for publication in JCAP

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Cited by in corpus (8)

• 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
• On the prospects of thermalization of axion-SU(2) inflation
• Gravitational waves from axion inflation in the gradient expansion formalism. Part II. Fermionic axion inflation
• Perturbative limits on axion-SU(2) gauge dynamics during inflation from the energy density of spin-2 particles
• The Stochastic Schwinger Effect
• Gravitational Waves from Gauge Quanta Produced during Inflation
• Nonlinear Lattice Framework for Inflation: Bridging stochastic inflation and the $\delta N$ formalism