Gravitational Dark Matter Production from Spectator Field in $R^2$-Higgs Inflation

Abstract

We investigate the cosmological gravitational dark matter production of spectator field $χ$ in the multifield $R^2$-Higgs inflation. The spectator field $χ$ couples to gravity only through a non-minimal coupling $ξ_χχ^2R$ and serves as a dark matter (DM) candidate. Working consistently in the Einstein frame, we derive the equation of motion of the background fields and fluctuations at linear order using the doubly covariant formalism. We show the dark matter production and the subsequent comoving relic abundance heavily depend on this effective mass of the field $χ$. Specifically, we find that there exists cancellation regions in the effective mass-squared of $χ$, which ensures the correct relic abundance is achieved. Further, we show that the preheating from Higgs and Goldstone may play critical role in accounting the observed relic density.