Abstract:
In this talk I will review aspects of the inflationary Schwinger effect and its implications for dark matter. As part of this I will review the calculation of the Schwinger current in de Sitter space and show how peculiar IR divergences found in previous calculations can be cured. I will then review how the dark matter relic abundance can be generated through the inflationary Schwinger effect leading to a combination of vector and dark charged fermion or scalar dark matter today and discuss potential phenomenological implications.
About the speaker:
Roberto Vega-Morales is an assistant professor at the University of Granada in southern Spain. He did his PhD at Northwestern University with professor Ian Low followed by postdoc positions in Paris and Granada. His research has focused on precision studies of the Higgs boson at the LHC, inflationary dark matter production mechanisms, and other BSM physics. This is his first visit to China and he is very excited to be here.