Sourcing dark matter and dark energy from α-attractors

• Published in: Journal of cosmology and astroparticle physics 2017-06, Vol.2017 (6), p.45-45
• Main Authors: Mishra, Swagat S., Sahni, Varun, Shtanov, Yuri
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: APPEALS; ATTRACTORS; NONLUMINOUS MATTER; PARTICLE TRACKS; PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS; SIMULATION; SUPERGRAVITY
• ISSN: 1475-7516; 1475-7516
• DOI: 10.1088/1475-7516/2017/06/045

In [1], Kallosh and Linde drew attention to a new family of superconformal inflationary potentials, subsequently called α-attractors [2]. The α-attractor family can interpolate between a large class of inflationary models. It also has an important theoretical underpinning within the framework of supergravity. We demonstrate that the α-attractors have an even wider appeal since they may describe dark matter and perhaps even dark energy. The dark matter associated with the α-attractors, which we call α-dark matter (αDM), shares many of the attractive features of fuzzy dark matter, with V (φ) = ½ m {sup 2}φ{sup 2}, while having none of its drawbacks. Like fuzzy dark matter, αDM can have a large Jeans length which could resolve the cusp-core and substructure problems faced by standard cold dark matter. αDM also has an appealing tracker property which enables it to converge to the late-time dark matter asymptote, ( w ) ≅ 0, from a wide range of initial conditions. It thus avoids the enormous fine-tuning problems faced by the m {sup 2}φ{sup 2} potential in describing dark matter.