Gravitational Production of Superheavy Dark Matter and Associated Cosmological Signatures

Understand

We study the gravitational production of super-Hubble-mass dark matter in the very early universe.

• We first review the simplest scenario where dark matter is produced mainly during slow roll inflation.
• Then we move on to consider the cases where dark matter is produced during the transition period between inflation and the subsequent cosmological evolution.
• The limits of smooth and sudden transitions are studied, respectively.