6 papers
Tachyonic gravitational dark matter production after inflation
Giorgio Laverda, Tomás Mendes, Javier Rubio
We propose a novel gravitational mechanism for the non-thermal production of dark matter driven by curvature-induced tachyonic instabilities after inflation. Departing from the com…
Higgs-Induced Gravitational Waves: the Interplay of Non-Minimal Couplings, Kination and Top Quark Mass
Giorgio Laverda, Javier Rubio
We explore a minimal scenario where the sole Standard-Model Higgs is responsible for reheating the Universe after inflation, produces a significant background of gravitational wave…
Hubble-Induced Phase Transitions: Gravitational-Wave Imprint of Ricci Reheating from Lattice Simulations
Dario Bettoni, Giorgio Laverda, Asier Lopez-Eiguren +1
Gravitational waves offer an unprecedented opportunity to look into the violent high-energy processes happening during the reheating phase of our Universe. We consider a Hubble-ind…
Ephemeral Oscillons in Scalar-Tensor Theories: The Higgs-like case
Matteo Piani, Javier Rubio, Francisco Torrenti
We investigate the post-inflationary evolution of a non-minimally coupled inflaton field in scalar-tensor theories, framed within the flexible framework of Einstein-Cartan gravity.…
Hubble-induced phase transitions in the Standard Model and beyond
Javier Rubio, Giorgio Laverda
We review the dynamics of spectator scalar fields non-minimally coupled to gravity in the post-inflationary Universe, with particular emphasis on scenarios where the end of inflati…
Phasing out of Darkness: From Sterile Neutrino Dark Matter to Neutrino Masses via Time-Dependent Mixing
Florian Goertz, Maya Hager, Giorgio Laverda +1
Sterile neutrinos are a compelling candidate for generating neutrino masses and for elucidating the nature of dark matter. Astrophysical X-ray constraints on sterile neutrino dark…