Scalars 2025: Higgs bosons and cosmology

Session

Plenary 3

Sep 22, 2025, 2:00 PM

0.06 (University of Warsaw, Faculty of Physics)

Conveners

Plenary 3

• Mikhail Shaposhnikov

71. Rarita-Schwinger Fields and Cosmology

Edward (Rocky) Kolb (University of Chicago)

9/22/25, 2:00 PM

Plenary

The early universe after inflation can have enhanced production, in fact "runaway production," of Rarita-Schwinger fields (spin-3/2 fermions). I will discuss the implication of gravitational production of Rarita-Schwinger fields for dark matter and for the identification of Rarita-Schwinger fields as the gravitino.

93. Making dark particles from gravity

Andrew Long

9/22/25, 2:30 PM

Plenary

Where did the dark matter come from? The phenomenon of cosmological gravitational particle production (CGPP) occurs during and after inflation as quantum fields that feel the cosmological expansion are excited out of their ground state. CGPP is a simple explanation for the origin of dark matter, which might only interact gravitationally, as well as other cosmological relics. In this talk,...

59. Gravitational Waves from Gravitational Particle Production

Marcos A. Garcia Garcia (Instituto de Física, UNAM)

9/22/25, 3:00 PM

Plenary

The excitation of scalar dark matter during inflation may result in large isocurvature perturbations, which can be avoided by inducing a sizable effective dark matter mass during the inflationary phase. This can be achieved by a direct coupling to the inflaton, through a nonminimal coupling to the curvature, or by a large bare mass. Notably, when the isocurvature is suppressed at CMB scales, a...

88. Dark matter spikes with strongly self-interacting particles

Alejandro Ibarra

9/22/25, 3:30 PM

Plenary