A lattice study of axion inflation
- Autores: Ander Urio Garmendia
- Directores de la Tesis: Jon Urrestilla Urizabal (dir. tes.), Joanes Lizarraga Olano (codir. tes.)
- Lectura: En la Universidad del País Vasco - Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea ( España ) en 2025
- Idioma: inglés
- Títulos paralelos:
- Axioi inflazionaren sare bidezko azkerketa
- Programa de doctorado: Programa de Doctorado en Física por la Universidad del País Vasco/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea
- Menciones:
- Internacional
- Calificación: Sobresaliente Cum Laude
- Enlaces
- Tesis en acceso abierto en: addi.ehu.eus
- Resumen
Cosmological inflation offers a powerful framework to probe the early universe. Among the many models, those promoting the inflaton to an axion-like particle to protect against quantum corrections have gained notable interest. This thesis presents an in-depth study of axion inflation with a Chern-Simons coupling in the non-linear regime, using lattice simulations as the main tool. We reveal that strong local backreaction extends the inflationary phase via a magnetically dominated slow-roll regime, breaking chirality and transversality. While some features are universal, key aspects depend on the potential. We also show that the commonly used homogeneous backreaction approximation fails under strong coupling. Finally, we develop a new method to study the gravitational wave production, highlighting that their detectability hinges on the non-linear dynamics. This work emphasizes the crucial role of lattice simulations in accurately capturing the physics of axion inflation and revising its predicted observational signatures.
