Geometrical origins of the universe dark sector: string-inspired torsion and anomalies as seeds for inflation and dark matter

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12 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

In a modest attempt to present potentially new paradigms in cosmology, including its inflationary epoch, and initiate discussions, I review in this article some novel, string-inspired cosmological models, which entail a purely geometrical origin of the dark sector of the Universe but also of its observed matter-antimatter asymmetry. The models contain gravitational (string-model independent, Kalb- Ramond (KR)) axion fields coupled to primordial gravitational anomalies via CP-violating interactions. The anomaly terms are four-space-time-dimensional remnants of the Green-Schwarz counterterms appearing in the definition of the field strength of the spin-one antisymmetric tensor field of the (bosonic) massless gravitational string multiplet, which also plays the role of a totally antisymmetric component of torsion. I show how in such cosmologies the presence of primordial gravitational waves can lead to anomaly condensates and dynamical inflation of a 'running-vacuum-model' type, without external inflatons, but also to leptogenesis in the radiation era due to anomaly induced Lorentz and CPT violating KR axion backgrounds. I also discuss how the torsionrelated KR-axion could acquire a mass during the QCD epoch, thus playing the role of (a component of) dark matter. Phenomenological considerations of the inflationary and post-inflationary (in particular, modern) eras of the model are briefly discussed.

Original languageEnglish
Article number20210188
Pages (from-to)20210188
Number of pages1
JournalPhilosophical transactions. Series A, Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences
Volume380
Issue number2222
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2 May 2022

Keywords

  • dark matter
  • inflation
  • running vacuum model
  • string-inspired cosmology
  • torsion

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