Reuse & Permissions

It is not necessary to obtain permission to reuse this article or its components as it is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI are maintained. Please note that some figures may have been included with permission from other third parties. It is your responsibility to obtain the proper permission from the rights holder directly for these figures.

Export citation

Export citation

Choose format for download:

Download Citation
  • Open Access
  • Access by Xinjiang University

Effects of non-Bunch-Davies initial conditions on gravitationally produced relics

Enrico Bertuzzo1,2,*, Gabriel M. Salla3,4,†, and Andrea Tesi5,‡

  • *Contact author: enrico.bertuzzo@unimore.it
  • Contact author: gabriel.massoni.salla@desy.de
  • Contact author: andrea.tesi@fi.infn.it

Phys. Rev. D 114, 023044 – Published 23 July, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/ctxp-tlpb

Abstract

Typical gravitational production of relics from amplification of inflationary perturbations assumes Bunch-Davies initial conditions, i.e., a vacuum with initially no particles. In this paper we investigate the impact of non Bunch-Davies initial conditions to the final abundance of relics, with particular attention to the parameter space where the total dark matter abundance is reproduced. We present a general framework for any initial condition, through which we show their nontrivial effect on both spectrum and late-time abundance. We argue that for particles whose source of conformal symmetry breaking comes only from a mass term (spin-1/2 fermions and conformally coupled scalars), the choice of initial conditions has little impact on the mass range relevant to dark matter. For other particles, e.g., the longitudinal mode of spin-1, we see a deviation from the standard computation. We exemplify and quantify our results with an initial thermal state and a two-stage inflation scenario, highlighting that the total dark matter can be obtained for a wide range of masses.

View figure in article

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Article Text

References (79)

  1. L. Parker, Phys. Rev. Lett. 21, 562 (1968).
  2. L. Parker, Phys. Rev. 183, 1057 (1969).
  3. L. Parker, Phys. Rev. D 3, 346 (1971); 3, 2546(E) (1971).
  4. L. E. Parker, Other thesis, Harvard University, 2025, arXiv:2507.05372.
  5. D. H. Lyth and D. Roberts, Phys. Rev. D 57, 7120 (1998).
  6. D. J. H. Chung, E. W. Kolb, and A. Riotto, Phys. Rev. D 59, 023501 (1998).
  7. E. W. Kolb, D. J. H. Chung, and A. Riotto, AIP Conf. Proc. 484, 91 (1999).
  8. D. J. H. Chung, P. Crotty, E. W. Kolb, and A. Riotto, Phys. Rev. D 64, 043503 (2001).
  9. D. J. H. Chung, E. W. Kolb, A. Riotto, and L. Senatore, Phys. Rev. D 72, 023511 (2005).
  10. D. J. H. Chung, E. W. Kolb, and A. J. Long, J. High Energy Phys. 01 (2019) 189.
  11. Y. Ema, K. Nakayama, and Y. Tang, J. High Energy Phys. 09 (2018) 135.
  12. E. E. Basso and D. J. H. Chung, J. High Energy Phys. 11 (2021) 146.
  13. E. W. Kolb, A. J. Long, E. McDonough, and G. Payeur, J. High Energy Phys. 02 (2023) 181.
  14. M. Redi and A. Tesi, J. High Energy Phys. 01 (2023) 085.
  15. L. Jenks, E. W. Kolb, and K. Thyme, J. High Energy Phys. 05 (2025) 077.
  16. D. Racco, S. Verner, and W. Xue, J. High Energy Phys. 09 (2024) 129.
  17. A. Belfiglio and O. Luongo, Phys. Rev. D 110, 023541 (2024).
  18. S. Verner, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 05 (2025) 060.
  19. M. A. G. Garcia, W. Ke, Y. Mambrini, K. A. Olive, and S. Verner, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 08 (2025) 039.
  20. D. J. H. Chung, L. L. Everett, H. Yoo, and P. Zhou, Phys. Lett. B 712, 147 (2012).
  21. P. Adshead and E. I. Sfakianakis, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 11 (2015) 021.
  22. Y. Ema, K. Nakayama, and Y. Tang, J. High Energy Phys. 07 (2019) 060.
  23. F. Koutroulis, O. Lebedev, and S. Pokorski, J. High Energy Phys. 04 (2024) 027.
  24. P. W. Graham, J. Mardon, and S. Rajendran, Phys. Rev. D 93, 103520 (2016).
  25. E. W. Kolb and A. J. Long, J. High Energy Phys. 03 (2021) 283.
  26. A. Ahmed, B. Grzadkowski, and A. Socha, J. High Energy Phys. 08 (2020) 059.
  27. A. Arvanitaki, S. Dimopoulos, M. Galanis, D. Racco, O. Simon, and J. O. Thompson, J. High Energy Phys. 11 (2021) 106.
  28. M. Redi and A. Tesi, J. High Energy Phys. 10 (2022) 167.
  29. C. Capanelli, L. Jenks, E. W. Kolb, and E. McDonough, Phys. Rev. Lett. 133, 061602 (2024).
  30. C. Capanelli, L. Jenks, E. W. Kolb, and E. McDonough, J. High Energy Phys. 09 (2024) 071.
  31. R. Kallosh, L. Kofman, A. D. Linde, and A. Van Proeyen, Phys. Rev. D 61, 103503 (2000).
  32. G. F. Giudice, I. Tkachev, and A. Riotto, J. High Energy Phys. 08 (1999) 009.
  33. E. W. Kolb, A. J. Long, and E. McDonough, Phys. Rev. D 104, 075015 (2021).
  34. K. Kaneta, W. Ke, Y. Mambrini, K. A. Olive, and S. Verner, Phys. Rev. D 108, 115027 (2023).
  35. E. W. Kolb, S. Ling, A. J. Long, and R. A. Rosen, J. High Energy Phys. 05 (2023) 181.
  36. S. Alexander, L. Jenks, and E. McDonough, Phys. Lett. B 819, 136436 (2021).
  37. L. H. Ford, Rep. Prog. Phys. 84, 116901 (2021).
  38. E. W. Kolb and A. J. Long, Rev. Mod. Phys. 96, 045005 (2024).
  39. M. A. G. Garcia, M. Pierre, and S. Verner, Phys. Rev. D 108, 115024 (2023).
  40. R. Ebadi, S. Kumar, A. McCune, H. Tai, and L.-T. Wang, Phys. Rev. D 109, 083519 (2024).
  41. M. A. G. Garcia and S. Verner, arXiv:2506.12126.
  42. E. Bertuzzo, Y. F. Perez-Gonzalez, G. M. Salla, and R. Z. Funchal, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 09 (2024) 059.
  43. K. Kaneta, S. M. Lee, and K.-y. Oda, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 09 (2022) 018.
  44. A. Chakraborty, S. Clery, M. R. Haque, D. Maity, and Y. Mambrini, Phys. Rev. D 112, 043511 (2025).
  45. D. Feiteira and O. Lebedev, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 07 (2025) 003.
  46. T. Markkanen, A. Rajantie, and T. Tenkanen, Phys. Rev. D 98, 123532 (2018).
  47. L. E. Padilla, J. A. Vázquez, T. Matos, and G. Germán, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 05 (2019) 056.
  48. C. Cosme and T. Tenkanen, Phys. Rev. D 102, 123534 (2020).
  49. R. Garani, M. Redi, and A. Tesi, Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 101005 (2025).
  50. R. Garani, M. Redi, and A. Tesi, J. High Energy Phys. 08 (2025) 037.
  51. E. Alexeev and R. Flauger, arXiv:2502.16745.
  52. M. Gasperini, M. Giovannini, and G. Veneziano, Phys. Rev. D 48, R439 (1993).
  53. N. Kaloper, M. Kleban, A. Lawrence, S. Shenker, and L. Susskind, J. High Energy Phys. 11 (2002) 037.
  54. U. H. Danielsson, Phys. Rev. D 66, 023511 (2002).
  55. C. P. Burgess, J. M. Cline, F. Lemieux, and R. Holman, J. High Energy Phys. 02 (2003) 048.
  56. R. Holman and A. J. Tolley, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 05 (2008) 001.
  57. I.-C. Wang and K.-W. Ng, Phys. Rev. D 77, 083501 (2008).
  58. N. Agarwal, R. Holman, A. J. Tolley, and J. Lin, J. High Energy Phys. 05 (2013) 085.
  59. A. Aravind, D. Lorshbough, and S. Paban, J. High Energy Phys. 07 (2013) 076.
  60. R. Flauger, D. Green, and R. A. Porto, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 08 (2013) 032.
  61. U. Danielsson, J. High Energy Phys. 04 (2019) 095.
  62. K. Bhattacharya, S. Mohanty, and R. Rangarajan, Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 121302 (2006).
  63. I. Agullo and L. Parker, Gen. Relativ. Gravit. 43, 2541 (2011).
  64. I. Agullo and L. Parker, Phys. Rev. D 83, 063526 (2011).
  65. D. J. H. Chung and H. Yoo, Phys. Rev. D 87, 023516 (2013).
  66. Y. Akrami et al. (Planck Collaboration), Astron. Astrophys. 641, A10 (2020).
  67. V. Cardoso, Ó. J. C. Dias, G. S. Hartnett, M. Middleton, P. Pani, and J. E. Santos, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 03 (2018) 043.
  68. C. Ünal, F. Pacucci, and A. Loeb, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 05 (2021) 007.
  69. Y. Chen, R. Roy, S. Vagnozzi, and L. Visinelli, Phys. Rev. D 106, 043021 (2022).
  70. A. K. Saha, P. Parashari, T. N. Maity, A. Dubey, S. Bouri, and R. Laha, Eur. Phys. J. C 84, 901 (2024).
  71. A. Arvanitaki and S. Dubovsky, Phys. Rev. D 83, 044026 (2011).
  72. R. Brito, V. Cardoso, and P. Pani, Lect. Notes Phys. 906, 1 (2015).
  73. G. D’Amico and N. Kaloper, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 08 (2021) 058.
  74. N. D. Birrell and P. C. W. Davies, Quantum Fields in Curved Space, Cambridge Monographs on Mathematical Physics (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England, 1982), ISBN [Amazon][WorldCat], [Amazon][WorldCat].
  75. O. Lebedev and J.-H. Yoon, Phys. Lett. B 873, 140222 (2026).
  76. D. J. H. Chung, H. Yoo, and P. Zhou, Phys. Rev. D 87, 123502 (2013).
  77. A. Boyarsky, J. Lesgourgues, O. Ruchayskiy, and M. Viel, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 05 (2009) 012.
  78. M. Viel, G. D. Becker, J. S. Bolton, and M. G. Haehnelt, Phys. Rev. D 88, 043502 (2013).
  79. M. A. Amin and M. Mirbabayi, Phys. Rev. Lett. 132, 221004 (2024).

Outline

Information

Sign In to Your Journals Account

Filter

Filter

Article Lookup

Enter a citation