PT Journal
AU Figueroa, DG
   Lizarraga, J
   Urio, A
   Urrestilla, J
TI Strong Backreaction Regime in Axion Inflation
SO Physical Review Letters
JI Phys. Rev. Lett.
PY 2023
BP 151003
EP 7pp
VL 131
IS 15
DI 10.1103/PhysRevLett.131.151003
LA English
AB We study the nonlinear dynamics of axion inflation, capturing for the first time the inhomogeneity and full dynamical range during strong backreaction, till the end of inflation. Accounting for inhomogeneous effects leads to a number of new relevant results, compared to spatially homogeneous studies: (i) the number of extra efoldings beyond slow-roll inflation increases very rapidly with the coupling, (ii) oscillations of the inflaton velocity are attenuated, (iii) the tachyonic gauge field helicity spectrum is smoothed out (i.e., the spectral oscillatory features disappear), broadened, and shifted to smaller scales, and (iv) the nontachyonic helicity is excited, reducing the chiral asymmetry, now scale dependent. Our results are expected to impact strongly on the phenomenology and observability of axion inflation, including gravitational wave generation and primordial black hole production.
ER