Constraining Inflation via FIMP dark matter using the $β$-function with collider implications

Abstract

The present study connects inflation and freeze-in type dark matter (DM) within the same setup. Although the observables in these two phenomena lie at vastly different energy scales, they have been properly handled using the RG running of couplings. For studying DM and inflation, the SM has been minimally extended by introducing an abelian dark gauge symmetry and a dark singlet scalar. In studying inflation, the SM Higgs doublet has been considered as the inflaton, which has a non-minimal coupling with the Ricci scalar. All inflationary observables have been computed at the horizon exit scale and constrained using the Planck data. Moreover, inflationary constraints have revealed strong correlations among model parameters, significantly reducing the allowed parameter space. In particular, in the Higgs mixing angle and BSM Higgs mass plane, only those values that ensure the Higgs quartic coupling remains above 0.18 are allowed. The additional gauge boson serves as a suitable DM candidate, produced via the freeze-in mechanism and stabilised by charge conjugation symmetry. The upper bound on the DM relic density further shrinks the parameter space allowed from inflationary constraints, becoming even narrower if we assume that the present vector DM constitutes the total DM density. Since DM interactions are feeble, it remains safe from all terrestrial experimental constraints. Additionally, the feeble dark matter coupling requires the dark Higgs-Ricci scalar non-minimal coupling to be negligible to satisfy Higgs inflation conditions. Finally, we have explored collider aspects and found that the trilinear and quartic Higgs vertices deviate from their SM values after incorporating inflation and DM constraints. Therefore, once we measure $κ_{3,4}$ at the future collider, we can establish the robustness of the Higgs inflation scenario.