2024/10/17 by Aurora Ireland, Gordan Krnjaic, Ireland, Aurora +3
Physics and Astronomy · #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2410.13712
The Standard Model of particle physics does not explain the origin of the universe's baryon asymmetry or its primordial fluctuations. The Affleck-Dine mechanism is a well-motivated scenario for generating the baryon asymmetry through the post-inflationary dynamics of a complex scalar field with baryon number. The curvaton mechanism is a popular approach for producing curvature perturbations through the dynamics of a light spectator field which decays after inflation. We demonstrate that the same complex field can viably perform both roles without any modifications to the minimal realization of Affleck-Dine baryogenesis. This scenario can also accommodate appreciable levels of primordial non-Gaussianity, beyond those achievable with only a real-valued curvaton field, and may be observable with future CMB experiments.